Archive of Our Own ^beta

It all started with a single exhausted sigh.

Finral flopped dramatically onto the Black Bulls’s battered couch, dark circles under his eyes, hair slightly more disheveled than usual. He had had a day and half already and it wasn’t even lunchtime. What was supposed to be his day off, was anything but.

First, he got to kick start his morning (if you consider being woken up at 2AM morning), by getting literally kicked out of bed by a grumpy Yami who needed a portal to some far-out remote village on the outskirts of the forsaken realm. Sure, it would be simple enough if he could just make a portal and go back to bed, but no Yami demanded he go with.

Finral wasn’t even sure why his presence was needed seeing as Yami, had “parked” him outside a seedy bar, while he went in to do who knows what until a quarter till 6. He stood their cold , tired, and slightly fearful for his safety for hours. When Yami finally decides it was time to head back, he doesn’t get so much as a, thank you.

No instead he got a slurred, “Oi portal boy, take me back home I got a load that needs dumping.”

Now Finral had become accustomed to receiving no thanks but being reduced to nothing more than a bathroom attendant had been eating away at his ego for a while now.

Even after he got himself and his captain back to base, he still wasn’t allowed a minute to rest. No, because apparently portaling into the common room was an open invitation to make demands of him.

“Finral quit being so useless. It’s my day with Marie and every minute I wait for you is one less with my angel!”

“Finral we’re all out of wine, be a doll and get us some more.”

“Hasn’t anyone told you that royalty should never wait. Now hurry up and make me a portal to the capital I’m going shopping with Mimosa.”

“Luck and I accidently broke some furniture; we need you to portal it to the trash heap before Captain Yami notices.”

“…..”

Ok that last one may have been a polite greeting coming from Gordon, but he was too tired to try and interpret Gordon’s mumbles. Finral let out another exhausted sigh, “So much for my day off.”

“If you have time to laze around, you have time for these” Yami grumbles as he drops a stack of papers onto his lap.

“Um…what are these exactly?” Finral asks as he picks up the sheets.

“What does it look like, it’s this quarters budget request and some property damage reports that need filling out.”

“Wait, weren’t these due last week?”

“Yup,” Yami blows out smoke, “so hurry up and get them done and sent over to Mushroom head, before he makes it my problem.”

“Isn’t it already your problem?”

“No, it’s your problem,” Yami smirks. “Oh, and find the kid his last mission report was pure chicken scratch, so you’re going to need to rewrite the whole thing.”

Finral feels his shoulders sag, “Yes sir.”

Finding Asta wasn’t too hard he just had to follow the sounds of aggressive cleaning, and low and behold there he was scrubbing the floors.

“Hey Asta, do you have a minute? I need to rewrite your last report, and I can’t tell if you fought off wild boars, or if you learned to make boat oars.”

“Sorry about that, Sister Lilly is always reminding me to work on my penmanship, but I haven’t had the time.” Asta cheers before he gets a confused look to his face, “But why are you doing reports? Isn’t today your day off.”

Finral could cry, with how relieved he was that at least someone valued his time. He is going to name Hage the best place in the kingdom, if these are the kind of manners they teach their residents. Maybe he should send a donation to the orphanage to thank them for producing someone as thoughtful as his junior.

“Um Finral?”

“Sorry my mind wondered off there for a moment.” Finral laughs nervously, “It is my day off, but I guess that doesn’t mean much when you’re the teams official unofficial errand boy.”

Asta jumps up getting way to close to Finral’s face, “You’re way more than an errand boy! Without you the whole squad would fall apart!”

Yup, Finral was definitely making a hefty donation to the orphanage. He felt his mood soften up with the praise, “Thanks Asta, it means a lot that at least one person appreciates what I do around here. I just wish the others could see that my time is important too.”

“I get that,” Asta nods sagely “it would be nice to get a little help with the chores, so I could spend more time training. I talked to Yuno and the Golden Dawn doesn’t even have chores!”

That made Finral stop to think, and it’s right, Asta was the only one to do any of the cleaning in the base. Sure, he was forced to play errand boy, but Asta’s list of chores would have had the maids at the Vaude estate running for the hills. Seriously, no way would any sane person willingly feed Yami’s beasts on a daily basis.

“Doesn’t that seem unfair?”

“Does what seem unfair?”

“You know, being the only one who has chores.”

Asta thinks for a second, “Well Magna did say it was the newbies job to clean around here. But yet again, Noelle never even picks up after herself let alone anyone else.”

“Exactly, that’s what I mean!” Finral exclaims, “And has Miss. I’m Royalty ever been told off for not helping?”

“I don’t think so, I don’t even think Captain Yami’s ever said a thing about it to her.”

“Right! In the time you’ve been here have you heard Yami, ask Luck or Magna to fix anything they destroy with their fighting?”

“Not that I’ve heard”

“Have you ever heard him tell Vanessa to stop leaving clothes or wine bottles laying around? Or tell Gauche, to put down his Marie pictures and clean up. Or tell Grey that helping around the base isn’t embarrassing. Or tell Zora to keep his stink bugs to himself. Or have Charmy do the shopping if she’s going to eat our food supply.”

“No!” Asta easily agrees.

“Has Yami ever offered to help either one of us, or even just thank us for all our hard work?”

“No way the captain, usually gives us even more work when we bring anything up!”

“Exactly! We’re the only one who ever get yelled at or threatened around here.” Finral face red by the time he finishes.

“Yeah!” Asta cheers, “So what are we going to do about it!”

Finral slumps down defeated, “W-well, um, probably nothing, but it was nice to vent.”

Asta slumps down beside him, “that’s true, it’s not like we can decide to just stop everything and show them how much we do for the team.”

Finral’s eyes sparkled. “Actually Asta, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going on a strike!”

Asta jumped to his feet, fist pumping. “Yeah, we are! What are we hitting!”

“Um, no, not that kind of strike. We’re going to stop working to put pressure on the rest of the team to meet our demands, about splitting the workload.”

“What exactly are we allowed to demand?”

Finral chuckles softly, flipping over the discarded mission report he was meant to be filling out, “That’s the beauty of it Asta we can ask for everything we deserve. Now what should be first on our list?”

___________

The next morning, the Black Bulls woke up to find a giant banner stretched across the common room, proudly proclaiming, 'NO PORTALS, NO LABOR, NO PEACE!’ (Signed Finral Roulacase & Asta, founding members of the Black Bulls working Union)

Beneath the banner was an official looking scroll titled: “Our Demands” in Finral’s flamboyant handwriting.

“What the hell is this,” Yami grunts as he unravels the scroll.

1. From hereafter all chores must be evenly split among ALL members of the Black Bulls, no exception.
2. No more threats of violence (please stop threatening to “kill us”)
3. No more actual violence (This includes but is not limited to water to the face, lightning, flames, stink bugs, or being tossed into walls)
4. No more insults or hurtful words
5. Days off must be honored and respected
6. Team takes turns feeding Yami’s “pets”
7. Reasonable work hours (No more 24/7 Portal requests)
8. No more abusing portal privileges, you may ask but you can’t get mad if the answer is no
9. No offensive nicknames (wheels, magic carpet, “my ride”)
10. “Please” and “Thank you” is now required for all requests

Yami crushes the list in his fist, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Finral get your ass over here!”

Finral takes his time portaling over, face smug as he approaches his fuming captain.

“What the hell are you and the kid playing at?” Yami demands.

“Oh, we aren’t playing at anything. Until that list is agreed upon by the entire squad me and Asta are staying on strike.”

“You seriously think you two morons, can just make demands around here.”

“I don’t see why not, as far as I can see you lot need us way more than we need the constant abuse.”

Yami leans in closer to the spatial mage, puffing smoke in his face, “You want to bet on that?”

Finral puffs up, meeting his captain’s eyes head on, “Seeing as you’re the worst gambler I know -- yeah I’m willing to take that bet.”

Yami chuckles lowly, “Game on, Portal boy.”

Day 1:

Finral can admit his confrontation with Yami earlier did leave him a bit shaken –but also a bit exhilarated. He’d never stood up to Yami in 7 years he’s been in the Black Bulls, it felt nice not backing down from a challenge. He was riding that high back outside where he had left Asta in charge of making their picket signs. Their goal was to make about 20 signs to post around the base.

“Asta!” Finral waved, his usual carefree energy radiating from him once again. “How are the signs coming?”

“It’s going great! I ran out of catchy slogans, so I drew up a mascot for us!” Asta proudly presented his work of what Finral hopes is a bull scrubbing floors, and not anything else that requires a bull to be presenting itself like that.

“It uh, it looks great Asta” Finral laughs nervously, “b-but maybe we can workshop some more slogans before we make too many with your mascot on them.”

“Good thinking! That way we give our new members a chance to come up with their own!”

Finral raises a brow to that, “New members?” Instead of answering verbally, Asta pointed happily over to a flock of Charmy’s sheep who are hanging Asta’s completed signs around different trees. “Wait, our new members are Charmy’s sheep?”

“Yup, they asked if they could join us, I guess Charmy runs them ragged at all hours of the day making her food. Or at least I think that’s what they said.” Asta mumbles in the end.

This causes him to pause, “I guess I never thought creatures made of mana could feel the same way we do, but the more the merrier!” Finral salutes the flock. Internally he couldn’t be more pleased, no way Yami doesn’t cave now.

Meanwhile inside the base, the rest of the bulls had woken up and were left confused, at the banner hanging over the bar, and the lack of breakfast on the table.

Taking one for the team Magna slowly approaches their fuming captain from where he sits reading his paper, “Hey uh captain, what exactly is going on right now?”

“Idiot 1 and 2, have decided that things around here are “unfair” and “hostile”, so they are striking.” Yami growls.

“A strike! Is that like a fight? I want to strike too!” Luck jumps in.

“No, you moron, he’s saying that Finral and Asta aren’t going to stop whining, until they get what they want,” Gauche corrects “they better not be asking for any of my precious Marie pictures!”

“Calm down Gauche, I’m sure whatever those two are asking for is completely normal…and not borderline illegal.” Vanessa, ever the peacemaker soothes. “What exactly are they asking for Captain?”

Yami hands over the scroll with their demands to the witch. Reading it over Vanessa can’t help but smile, “See I told you, nothing on here is remotely unreasonable.” Godon nods in his agreement from where he reads over her shoulder.

“Too bad I’m not agreeing to a single thing.” Yami chimes in.

“What but Captain, it’s not like --”

“Not happening!” Yami cuts her off.

Never one to read the room Zora decides to voice his own concern, “Strike, no strike who cares. What I want to know is where is breakfast?”

All eyes turn to Charmy who had been silently stewing in her seat at the table, “Sheep are striking too.”

“What?!” the team yells out.

“How can they strike? They’re your cotton creations!” Magna questioned her, jaw on the floor. Charmy slides over a scrap of paper presumably containing the list of demands her sheep gave her.

Zora the closest to her slaps a hand to his face, “These aren’t even words, it’s just a bunch of scribbles. How sure are you they’re on strike?”

“Even if they are striking, can’t you just poof away your current sheep and just make new ones?” Magna asks.

“Can’t, hive mind.”

“H-h-hive mind? That’s so embarrassing” Grey squeaks.

Vanessa crosses her arms as she leans back to address Captain Yami, “Want to quit being so stubborn now?”

Yami just continues to pretend he’s reading his paper, ignoring the team’s concern.

Day 2

Finral really did think that Yami would cave when he noticed that the sheep joined forces with him and Asta, but that wasn’t the case, yet. According to his calculations the other bulls (mainly Charmy) should be finishing off their current food supply soon. As one of the earliest members of the Black Bulls, Finral knows for a fact that he’s done every supply run since he’s joined the team. Which means never has anyone had to carry groceries without one of his portals taking them straight home from the market. Now all he has to do is wait until the team starts to understand exactly how and why he’s so useful to them.

Either way he feels optimistic about their cause. They even gained a new member with Gordon joining them in solidarity. Vanessa would have joined them also, but she said she needed to stay with the others to make sure they don’t go too crazy without them. He tried to argue that the whole point was driving the others to their breaking point, but she wouldn’t budge on that front.

Although she did make them patches with her redesign on their logo (a bull making a portal with a mop in hand), so she was forgiven quickly, (Asta was still confused why his original design needed to be modified, but neither one of them wanted to explain the reason to the poor boy raised in a church).

“FINRAL LUNCH IS READY!” Asta yells out from outside where they were holding their first ever union meeting/Barbeque. If it happens that their meeting is taking place upwind from the base, then he’d say it’s pure coincidence that the smell of their lunch should be making the others very hungry.

“Aw man, it smells so good outside,” Zora groans from his spot on the couch “You know 80% of the reason I even show up at the base is for the free grub.”

“Get over it,” Yami reprimands lighting up his third cigarette for the day.

“How about we fight so we don’t think about eating!” Luck suggests.

“How exactly will that help?” Noelle questions.

“Like this,” Luck demonstrates by knocking Magna over spilling the last of his emergency food supply.

Magna shouts out as he chases after cheery berserker, “YOU’RE DEAD LUCK!”

“Um C-captain Yami sir, C-Charmy finished all the food we had in the pantry.”

Yami looked over to Grey who was clearly pushed over to give him the bad news by a smug Vanessa and bored looking Gauche, well then if that’s how they want to play. “Gauche and Vanessa, go get us some more supplies!”

“What, why do we have to?” Gauche complains.

“Because you’re pissing me off, that’s why.”

“How are we supposed to carry everything?”

“Figure it out, push pass your limits.”

Day 3

By day three, Yami could admit he was fed up with the whole thing; hell he was fed up after minute one, but there was no way he backs down now. As if his mood couldn’t get sourer, he has to take extra steps around the base to avoid all the debris from Luck and Magna’s last tussle, and the aftermath of Zora’s stupid pranks that they triggered in their fight.

“Oi, why are there holes on all the walls?”

Lowering her wine glass, Vanessa smiles proudly, “Oh haven’t you heard Captain? Henry has joined the Black Bulls Working Union.”

“What why?”

“I guess Finral and Asta convinced him to join when they dropped off his meals yesterday.”

He had to push down the warm feeling he got knowing that the two hadn’t stopped thinking of their bed-bound friend because he was still annoyed - they more or less radicalized his house.

Noelle hands him a new scroll titled ‘New Demands’ before quickly backing away from him. The first 10 demands remain the same, but it looks like Henry and the sheep gave input as well.

      11.No intentional structural damage to the base

      12.All fights must be outside and at least 50 meters from the base

      13.Proper gratitude with every meal

      14. No more 24/7 cooking times

      15. Kitchen free of explosions or traps

Yami lets out another groan, “When Luck and Magna get down here tell them I expect the holes patched up; if I feel so much as a breeze, I’m gonna kill them. And since Zora has time for pranks, he has time to feed the magical beasts.”

“Sir yes sir.” Vanessa cheers with her glass in the air.

Day 4:

“What do you mean, we’re out of food? Didn’t I just send you morons out two days ago to get supplies?”

Gauche looks uninterested in the face of his irate captain, “What did you expect there’s only so much we can carry while ride a broom. Plus, I don’t know if you noticed, but we live in the middle of nowhere it’s not exactly easy to get supplies.”

Yami growls, “Go take Noelle and Nero, and get more supplies.”

“Sir,” Noelle tries to speak up.

“I don’t care if you’re royalty you’re going.”

“It’s not that!” She snaps “I just haven’t mastered riding a broom yet, or whatever.”

Yami could literally feel his blood pressure rising by this point, “Fine, then take Grey and Nero instead.”

“Um-Captain,” Grey tries to speak up.

“Don’t tell me you also can’t ride a broom!”

“N-n-no, but Nero joined Asta and Finral yesterday.”

Yami counts to three mentally, before he murders what is left of his squad. “Then take Vanessa--”

“Can’t, no one did laundry, so I simply have nothing to wear out.” Vanessa pipes in.

“How are you out of clothes, you don’t wear anything when you’re here!”

Vanessa shrugs, “Asta went on strike before he got to the last load.”

“Zora-”

“Is at the infirmary after you had him feed your pets.”

“Mag-”

“Who do you think took him to the infirmary.”

“Charmy”

“Isn’t allowed at any food market, within a 100-mile radius of the base.”

“Luck”

“You seriously want Luck to handle our supplies?”

Forget his blood pressure, he can feel the vein in his head prepare itself to burst, “Then you can go do laundry, have Charmy feed the beasts, Noelle can scrub the floors with Luck, and Grey and Gauche can figure out how to get supplies.” The collective groan of his team is well deserved music to his ears.

Day 5

Despite being busy leading the others in their strike, Finral has to admit he hasn’t felt this rejuvenated in ages. He’s been sleeping better, hasn’t been threatened in days and he has so much free time not running everyone’s errands – he even had to time to finish the book that was collecting dust on his nightstand.

It would have been perfect if he didn’t constantly remember why they were still on strike. He thought for sure Yami would realize where he was coming from and apologize, but it’s been almost a week and crickets. The tiny voice in the back of his head has been increasingly getting louder, constantly telling him that maybe he and Yami weren’t as close as he thought they were. Sure, he was technically his boss, but with how much time they spent together he thought maybe they were closer to friends, heck he even lets him call him Yami instead of Captain. The only thing keeping him from spiraling was that he had so many of his friends (and sheep) depending on him to keep it together.

Speaking of his friends, he should probably stop them from starting a bonfire in the middle of a forest. “Ok guys maybe let’s skip the fire and do something else.”

“Aw, but Nero and Henry have never had a smore before?” Asta complained.

“Really? Hmm, alright but let’s see if we can make a smaller campfire, so we don’t burn anything down, we don’t have Noelle with us to put out a large fire if it gets out of hand.”

“SIR, YES SIR!” Asta salutes, before dragging Nero and Henry away.

Turning to Gordon, “Can you go with them to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.”

“You got it brother Finral” Gordon salutes him as well as he trails after the other three.

Finral takes a few minutes to himself, no point of ruining the fun for the others just because he’s sad over Yami not appreciating him. Once he feels marginally better, he heads out to join his crew, after all why should he be the one to feel bad.

Day 6

Not wanting to go down in history as the first Magic Knight captain to kill his entire squad, Yami decides he needs to get out of the base and far, far away from any other Black Bull. He called up Mushroom head and practically begged for a mission to get him away for the day.

Which is how he finds himself hunting wild boars – he can only hope that Jack doesn’t find out that he stooped so low as to go boar hunting like some newbie. It was bad enough he had to fly out for an hour to even get to this village, but now he’s wasting his talent on boars -- who frankly are so small a fence could have done the job.

As pathetic as it is, it’s not even the boars or the flying that’s pissing him off the most. No, it’s the fact that he keeps catching himself turning back to speak to someone who isn’t there. He’s so used to having Finral around that he forgets he’s alone out here. Not that he misses him or anything, he’s just upset that all his witty remarks are going to waste. Yup, that’s it, he doesn’t need that wimp dragging him down, or anything like that, which is what he tells himself all the way to the only tavern in the village.

Admittedly, rapidly drink six ales with no food in his stomach when he still had to make his way home by broom may not have been the smartest move, but fuck it, at least he’s surpassing all sorts of limits today. Plus, he figures riding a broom in the cold was enough to mostly sober him up -mostly. By the time he reaches the base he’d say he’s closer to buzzed than drunk, so good enough.

His buzz is instantly killed when he realizes he landed on the side of the base that his traitorous Bulls had set up their protest. Looking around he sees them setting up tarps and covering up their signs. Good he was tired at looking at Asta’s stupid signs -- half of which were just hilarious looking bulls.

“CAPTAIN YAMI, ARE YOU HERE TO AGREE TO OUR TERMS!” the kid shouts from up in a tree, drawing the attention of the other four.

“Fuck no kid, hardly even noticed you lot were gone.”

This caused Finral to frown at him, “Well if you’re going to be rude you can go away.”

“It’s my house I can go wherever I want.”

“Actually, it’s Henry’s house, and he wants you to go away.” Finral huffs back at him.

“If Henry wants me to scram, he can say so himself.”

“Good…Bye…Captain…Yami…Sir”

Finral smirked triumphantly, “See he said to leave”

“Whatever, don’t think I’ll forget this when you’re crawling on your knees begging me to take you back.”

This caused the spatial mage to go red, “You seriously still don’t get it! I mean come on; it’s not like we’re asking for anything extreme.”

“You shouldn’t be asking me for anything at all!” he snaps directly into Finral’s face. “I’m the captain around here, not you. You don’t get to throw a tantrum just because your feelings get hurt. You’re not that special, never have been, never will be.”

Finral looks at him as if he had just punched him in the face, eyes getting teary like they usually do when he’s upset. So much for being mostly sober, he has an apology on the tip of his tongue, but before he can form the words Finral jumps from stricken to enraged.

“You know what Yami, fine do whatever you want. I don’t care! If you won’t admit we’re useful and deserve some help and appreciation, then that’s on you.” He starts to stomp away but before he gets too far, he turns back, “Oh, and have fun tomorrow at the captain’s meeting,” with a lopsided smirk he adds “don’t forget your umbrella I hear it’s going to storm.” And somehow on cue it begins to rain, hard.

Yami is soaked by the time he makes it inside, unlike the others who had the convince of being portaled back to their rooms, he no longer had that luxury. He just had to open his big mouth.

Day 7

By the time Yami kicks the door in to get into the meeting room, where this month’s captain’s meeting is taking place, he is wet, late, and itching for a smoke. Too bad his last packet soaked through sometime during the ride.

“Captain Yami, do you know how long we’ve been waiting for you, and why are you soaking wet!” Marx shouts out at him, as he drips over to his usual seat. Causing a red face Charlotte to scoot further away from him.

“Be thankful I even showed up.”

Julius, ever cheerful and far too curious for his Yami’s current mood, greeted him with a mischievous smile, “Yami it’s always good to see you. But you’re not usually late to these meetings or this wet.”

Never one to stay quite in the face of Yami’s misery, Jack also jumped in, “Yeah Yami, did your precious wheels accidently portal you into a lake, you look like a wet rat.”

Yami annoyed, “I had to fly myself here actually. Now that I made it, can we just start this stupid meeting.”

Taken aback with concern Julius’s mirthful smile drops, “Did something happen to Finral?”

“The little shit went on strike.”

The room went quiet.

Fuegoleon raised an eyebrow. “Strike?”

Yami waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah. Finral and the kid made a list of demands, then got some of the others to play along with them. It’s nothing, I’m dealing with it.”

There was a pause, then laughter. Loads of uncontrollable laughter.  Even Captain “I have no sense of humor” Nozel, let out a snort before quickly covering his mouth.

Jack wheezed, clutching his sides, “This is the best meeting ever!”

“It’s not that funny!” Yami barks.

Julius the first to compose himself spoke up, “You’re right sorry. What exactly are they asking for?”

Yami hands him the scroll he had tucked away in a pocket, (of course it was the only thing not wet, petty assholes used destruction proof paper). His face is unreadable as he looks over the list, before handing it over to the other captains so they could also read it. It circulates through the table each captain making some sort of noise of amusement, until it lands in Marx’s hands, who looks less amused and more contemplative with what he’s reading.  

Then in his best ‘I’m not mad, jut disappointed voice’ Julius begins to reprimand him, “Yami, these are hardly demands, if anything I’m more concerned, they even had to ask for any of these things.”

“Yeah well, if they had an issue, they should have done something about it.”

“Isn’t that what they’re doing now though?” William asks rhetorically.

“I don’t even see the issue; wouldn’t all these issues be resolved if you just hired some staff. Your base is near the Forsaken Realm. Shouldn’t peasant labor be cheap there? Just find some people desperate enough for Yul to associate with you and your squad.” Nozel adds.

“Not hiring a bunch of strangers to touch my stuff.” Yami shoots back.

With a dramatic sigh, Dorothy also adds her two cents, “I’m more disappointed they didn’t ask for better stuff, they need to learn to dream a little bigger.”

With a choked cough, Charlotte brings the attention to herself, “Regardless, this doesn’t explain why you showed up her looking so…indecent.” Yami looks down at his wet tank top, not sure what the problem was it was barely see-through.

“Yeah, why didn’t you just ask Cobb to portal you here? That’s what the rest of us did?” Rill pipes up curious.

“I didn’t realize this was an integration,” Yami huffs, once again wishing he had a cigarette. When he realizes they were all still waiting for an answer, he continues, “Cobb said he doesn’t cross picket lines. That the spatial mage community is small but united, or some shit like that.” He regrets saying anything at all when they almost start laughing at him once again.

Like a kid on Christmas, Jack beams at him, “Serves you right for always showing off that you had your own personal spatial mage.”

“Tsk, whatever, Finral will cave soon enough, and I doubt Asta even cared in the first place.” He grumbles. “Oi Mushroom head shouldn’t you start the meeting or something, isn’t it your job to keep these idiots in line.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Marx clears his throat, “My name isn’t Mushroom head, but yes we should begin.” And if no one saw him slip the list of demands into his trouser pocket, then that was on them for not being more observant as Magic Knight Captains.

Day 18

It’s been over two weeks, and Yami was at the end of his rope. He just couldn’t believe that the group of Bulls he was stuck with could be so incompetent. You would think a group of magic knights could handle basic chores or rationing supplies, but you would wrong.

 Before this strike he never thought he’d have to use phrases like: “Sea Dragon’s Roar is not an effective way to do laundry.” “Charmy I’m taking your next three paychecks to pay back our grocery fund.” “You can’t use Magna’s pudding to fill in holes in the wall.”

So, to say Yami was tired was an understatement. He was trying to work up the nerve, to admit defeat to Finral, but anytime he decided to get it over with Finral would be gone. It’s not exactly easy to track down the only person who can teleport to every kingdom on the map, but it was getting ridiculous. He tried to ask one of the others where he’d portaled off to, but they were surprisingly tightlipped. Even Asta, the biggest loudmouth he knows, kept quiet.

Now he was left with no better option than to stake out on the roof, for his little green headache to get back to base. The thought of taking a nap was tempting but knowing his luck the second he closed his eyes; he’d miss his chance to call for a truce. “What the hell, a quick snooze won’t hurt anyone.”

No sooner, than when he finally got comfortable, did his communicator go off. “Yami, it’s Julius. Can you come to the capital as soon as possible? We’re holding an emergency squad captain meeting.”

“Julius? They got you working the phones now?”

A nervous laugh, came through, “something like that.”

“Ya know, I’d get there a lot faster if you can get Cobb to give me a lift. Otherwise, you all will be waiting a while for me to get there.”

“I’m afraid you’re on your own again Yami, and I wouldn’t worry too much about the others they may be a while as well.”

Huh, well that’s an odd thing to say, “Alright. Be there when I get there.”

Yami hangs up the line confused, he knows he doesn’t usually keep in contact with anyone other than Jack on a semi regular basis, but how busy can they be that they were all going to be running late. “Eh whatever, not my business.”

Day 18 Continued:

By the time Yami got to the meeting, the sun was beginning to set, and he was certain he had at least two bugs fly into his mouth. He really hates flying.

“Yo, I made it,” he saunters in, but is met with the angry stares of half of the captains (not counting Jack who looked like he wanted to throw Yami a parade), “damn, they don’t teach manners at prissy noble school or what? I’m not even the last one; Goldilocks isn’t even here yet. But you’re all looking at me like I egged your bases --which to be fair I did do to braid face, but that was ages ago.”

“THAT WAS YOU!”

“Yami, do you know why we all had to gather here today?” Fuegoleon interrupts Nozel’s rage.

With a shrug, “Beats me, I was just told come.”

“I’m guessing by the fact that you had to fly here yourself you’ve made no progress on ending the strike your team initiated.”

“Hey! I’ve been trying, Finral’s just never around, and I’m even prepared to concede to four of his demands.”

“Yami”

“Don’t “Yami” me Julius, I was going to get them other stuff instead, like paying for green hair dye, and offering to kick the ass of anyone who doesn’t help the kid with the chores. That’s pretty generous of me, if I do say so myself.”

Jack bursts out laughing, “Oh I think you’re going to need to go a lot further than that, you stupid musclehead!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He means that Roulacase has started a movement throughout the Clover Kingdom.” Kaiser answers him.

Nozel snorts, “That disgrace of a noble did a lot more than that.”

“Watch your tongue, asshole!” Yami still wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but fight or no fight, he wasn’t going to let anyone insult a member of his squad to his face.

“You know, talking like that is how the kingdom got into this mess, so maybe you’re just as fault as Yami is.” Rill shrinks back at the glare Nozel shoots his way for his comment.

“He has a point.” Fuegoleon mumbles under his breath.

“What exactly is my fault?” Yami questions.

“Well, you see Yami, I suppose something struck a chord with Marx during the last meeting, and he along with some of the others on my staff got together to discuss their own treatment within the Magic Knights as well. As a result, they also have decided to strike as well.” Julius finally answers his question.

“It’s not just the staff employed by Wizard King Julius. All the employees who work for all the different squads are also on strike! Except Walter of course, he’s still my best friend! Hey, have you guys tried being nicer-” Rill was silenced by the glares of the other captains.

“And this is my fault how? Not on me that you lot can’t handle your business.”

“The Black Bulls are the source of all this strike nonsense.” Nozel snaps at him. “If you had kept a tighter leash on your team, their issues wouldn’t have spread to become everyone’s problem.”

“It’s all our faults; we allowed our pride in our status to corrupt the way we treat others. As a result, we have shamed ourselves and the kingdom.” Fuegoleon said, diplomatic as always.

“Nah, not me. You Royals and Nobles are at fault my Mantises are all just lowly commoners remember. Huh maybe we should strike also, it sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Jack if you’re not here to help, why did you come?”

“I needed a good laugh.”

“Still don’t see how the Black Bulls are to blame for all this. It’s only five humans and a bunch of sheep. Heck two of them just joined in solidarity they don’t even want anything.”

Julius hands Yami a scroll like the one he received, only this one was a whole lot thicker. “This was dropped on my desk a few days ago.”

Yami unravels it, but even without reading the words written he can recognize the penmanship anywhere, “This is Finral’s handwriting.”

 “I had a feeling it was.” Julius’s eyes began to sparkle “Plus, the fact that it was quite literally dropped onto my desk through a portal also told me it was Finral’s doing. I’m hoping after we get everything resolved he can tell me how he got through the palace wards. I have a few more questions for him regarding his brand of spatial magic. I tried asking Cobb before but he’s only able to open large doors, and I think I can get a better understanding of how things work if I can study one Finral’s smaller more precise portals. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been dying for a chance to study the Vaude family; to see firsthand how personality shapes how the same type of magic presents itself between users. Although, some researchers theorize that it’s the other way around and ---” By this point Yami tunes out from his mentor, he’s going to be rambling for a while and there is only so much nerd talk he can listen to before his head explodes.

 Skimming through the list, he’s got to admit, for someone so flighty the guy was thorough. All those budget reports he delegated to him must have paid off.  He had different sections based on job description with guidelines on how to grant pay raises, a system to create reasonable work hours with a subsection highlighting the importance of vacation days. Hell, he even included a part for Mushroom head, that demanded Julius keep a set number of office hours where he must be in his office and attend at least 90% of all his meetings going forward. “Damn, I guess I got off easy.”

“My favorite part is the section with expectations of proper treatment from Royals and Nobility. The examples are so condescending it’s hilarious!”

“I fail to see what is so funny, Jack.” Charlotte spoke up for the first time.

“Really then maybe we should look at the section for the Blue Rose Knights. You know where the men in your group list their grievances about being used as errand boys only and not allowed to be full members of your squad, that part was also great.”  Huffing, but not denying anything, Jack seemed to have hit a nerve.

“So just give them most of what they want and be done with it. It’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

“Agreeing to 4 out of 15 demands, is hardly comparable. Not to mention you haven’t even gotten the chance to make the honestly insulting counteroffer.” Dorothy corrects.

“Not the point, and I mean my guy took the time to include suggestions on how to fund all these changes. He already did the work just say yes and be done with it.”

“I was impressed also. The issue is mainly those who don’t want to agree to anything, including the King himself and a few others.” Julius pointedly looks around, glancing longer at some captains in the room. “We’re waiting on William to bring in the “big guns” so to speak to negotiate a bit more to win over the holdouts.”

“Big guns?” Yami was confused, who could possibly have that much sway…crap. “You’re kidding, you don’t mean…”

“Apologies for the delay it took longer to track down my Vice-Captain than I had originally anticipated.”  William enters, behind him stands Langris Vaude.

“Oh fuck”

“Language. You’re a captain act like it.” Langris scolds with a sneer.

Yami should have just stayed home.

_____________

“Thank you, Vice-Captain Langris, for joining us here today.” Julius greets “I’m sure you have plenty of other things on your plate recently, so were glad you took some time out of your schedule to be here today.”

“Well, it’s not every day that I’m told that my presence is being requested by the Wizard King himself. I am curious though, why exactly was I summoned.” Yami doesn’t even need to read this punks’ Ki to know that he’s lying, he knows exactly why he is here.

Unlike him Fuegoleon can’t read Ki, “I’m sure you’re quite familiar with the shutdowns caused by recent staff disagreements.”  Instead of confirming, Langris waves his hand forward like a King demanding their subject get to the point. “Well as it turns out your older brother is leading the campaign, and we need your assistance to get him to curtail some of the demands he and his following have put forth.”

“Surely your mistaken, I only have one brother and he’s less of a leader and more of a self-centered playboy degenerate.”

“I assure you; it’s no mistake. The one calling the shots is in fact your brother Finral.”

Langris lets out a dramatic gasp, “You’re kidding, my big brother Finral is behind all of this. That can’t be right, he’s far too much of a pushover! In fact, after I filled him with holes, he went out of his way to apologize to me for the incident instead of the other way around. I guess that’s why I have a hard time accepting that this isn’t an elaborate prank.

“Wait you never even apologized?” Charlotte looked disturbed, but her comment was otherwise ignored by everyone. Well, everyone but Yami, but he’ll circle back to killing this punk once they were done with him.

“It’s no prank. What started as a disagreement between your brother and Captain Yami, has spiraled far beyond the Black Bulls. While some of what they are requesting shouldn’t be too much of a hardship. I’m afraid there are some higherups in the Kingdom who aren’t taking these demands kindly.”

 Someone has really got to teach little Fuego what sarcasm is, Yami is getting secondhand embarrassment. He’s not one to beat around the bush, so he might as well be the one to stop this act altogether. “Listen kid, clearly you know more than you’re letting on. So how ‘bout you stop wasting everyone’s time and just telling us what your angle is, huh.”

Langris points his shit eating grin his way, “Oh I don’t have an angle, I’m just not going to help.”

“What, why not?” Nozel demands.

“Why should I get in the way of my brother’s goals?”

Rill raises his hand, “But I thought you hated your brother.”

Langris lowers his gaze at him, “I dislike his cowardice and the way he runs away from responsibility, but I’ve never hated my brother.”

“You tried to kill him.” Charlotte reminds him.

He shrugs, “Like I said, I already forgave him for that, and it was that elf’s doing mostly.”

“You forgave him?” She looks perplexed “Wait, mostly?”

Nozel chooses to ignore her in favor of continuing the interrogation, “So you came all this way to waste our time!”

“I came all this way for him,” he points straight at Yami accusatory.

“I’m flattered kid, but you’re not my type.”

He turns a hilarious shade of red, “I mean, I’m here to make sure you don’t ruin this for Finral! This is the first time I’ve ever seen him not only stand up for himself, but to take initiative and help others do so as well.”

“Wow for a second, you almost sounded proud.” Yami provokes.

“I am – proud that is.” Langris looks like he sucked on a lemon when he admits this.

Yami knows he also makes a face at this; at no point in his lifetime did he anticipate he would hear that Langris Vaude could admit to being proud of his brother.

“Langris, did you know what your brother was up to beforehand?” Vangeance’s smooth voice cuts in.

“I may have proofread everything before he sent it to King Julius.”

“And?” his captain asks, but Yami could tell he was amused not upset.

“Perhaps I also double checked his math, to make sure he didn’t bankrupt the Kingdom, and also this” He flips over the collar of his Golden Dawn robe to reveal the new insignia of the Black Bull Worker’s Union, “Though the witch didn’t give me a choice before she ruined all my robes.”

William gives him a proud smile, “Well I’m glad you two are finally getting along. I could tell you missed your big brother’s attention.”

 Embarrassment clouds his face with his captain’s comment, “I do not miss him! I just don’t want to discourage him from fixing some of his personality flaws.”

“Of course, forgive my mistake.”

“Vangeance, you can’t seriously be encouraging your Vice-Captain’s behavior.”

William hums, “I’m afraid I don’t see the issue, if Langris approved of everything than I trust his judgment.”

“You may trust his judgement, but the rest of us do not.” Nozel shoots back.

“Then doublecheck it yourself. It’s no concern of mine if you’re too pig headed to do your job.”

“What was that!” thankfully Kaiser who was next to Nozel was able to hold him back. “Captain Silva, calm down. We don’t need to agree to anything, most of these people are commoners they’ll run out of funds soon enough and come crawling back to work in no time.”

“True, unless of course those commoners had the support of a wealthy benefactor.” Langris preens.

“You’d pay to help commoners?” Jack questioned.

“Not me, but my brother would.”

Yami was thrown off by the statement “Kid I hate to break it to you, but your brother has been broke ever since your mommy and daddy cut him out of the family?”

“I’ve known since I was made the family heir, that he was a slip-up away from being completely disowned.  Which is why I convinced our family’s accountant to secretly put Finral’s inheritance in a trust that could only be accessed by his head of house, and because I never signed off on his disownment, that would be me and not our father.”

“How’d you pull that off?” Yami asked impressed.

“My brother doesn’t look down on anyone, no matter how much my parent’s tried to beat that motion out of him, he’d bounce back up and continue to offer a hand to anyone in need. It angered our parent’s but made him popular with our staff, including those who manage our finances.”

“This is truly touching, but as prestigious as the Vaude family is there is no way that there is enough money in that account to keep so many people afloat. Also, if your brother has no idea this account exists how can you be sure he won’t take his money and run, he’d have no reason to help anyone else.”

“Nah, he’s not like that,” Yami answers Kaiser, “he might splurge his paycheck on a pretty face every now and then, but other than that, he’s never really cared too much about money. He’s also too kind to leave anyone hung out to dry.”

“Please, no one can be that kind.”

“Finral is, if he wasn’t he might have had a chance to develop an offensive spell.” Yami huffs offended that anyone could question his judgment.

“And as far as the funds in that account go, it’s not just Vaude money, he also received a sizeable inheritance from his mother when she passed. I believe his maternal grandmother may have been royalty, but that’s just an assumption based on eye color and of course the large sum of money that was left for him.” Langris adds.

“This is getting ridiculous; we can just hire new staff. It’s not like cooks, maids, or butlers are a dime a dozen.”

 “Maybe so, but you wouldn’t want to risk, angering those who are so easily replaceable. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know for a fact that us spatial mages, tend to stick together.”

“I can confirm that.” Yami snorts.

Julius, who had been silently observing up until now finally spoke up, “Well in that case, I believe it would be in our best interest to come to an agreement. It’s getting late, why don’t we reconvene in the morning to go over everything on the list line by line.”

Exhausted by this point everyone confirmed they’d be back the next day and made their way quickly out the door. Julius offered Yami his spare room so he wouldn’t have to fly home and back, and he wasn’t about to look a gift horse on the mouth. He takes 3 steps out of the meeting room, before he’s stopped by an angry looking Langris. “We still need to talk.”

Normally he wouldn’t entertain the small fry, but after seeing how he went to bat for Finral he can’t exactly say no. “Eh why not, you know you surprised me in there, and I’m not often surprised. I guess you really don’t hate your brother.”

“I already said I didn’t hate him; the question is why do you hate him?”

“I don’t hate Finral.”

“Then why is it so hard for you apologize and make things right with him.”

Yami gets defensive, “You’re one to talk.”

“Do you honestly believe I care about any of this?” Langris begins to pace “I do have better things to do than to ghostwrite a list of demands, for people I don’t know. Nor would it ever occur to me to go against a room full of squad captains, but I did. I may not always have the words, but at least my actions speak for themselves.”

Any retort dies on his tongue, “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been looking for him, but he’s slippery when he wants to be.”

Langris chuckles, “Our nanny had to ban us from playing hide-n-seek, because it would take a search party to find him. If he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. I won’t tell you where he is now, but I can tell you where he’ll be three days from now.”

“Three days, can’t do anything sooner?”

“Be thankful I’m helping you at all, you oaf. He’s organizing a protest outside the palace gates, speeches start at 11, but he’s not one of the speakers it should be easy enough to pull him aside.”

“Thanks kid, I owe you one.” Relief floods his system, maybe he had Langris wrong all along.

“Mess this up, and I’ll erase you from existence and leave no evidence. Oh, and don’t tell that moron he isn’t broke, I don’t want him to think I care.” Nope, he was right about him, but as Yami saw him walk away at least he wasn’t tempted to throw anything at his head.

Day 10/ 20

Finral was nervous, but didn’t want to show it, not with so many people depending on him. When he first started all of this with Asta, he thought Yami would get annoyed at the inconvenience, give up, and at least split up Asta’s chores so it didn’t all fall onto one person. It never occurred to him that Yami would concede to anything else especially the requests that were obviously spatial magic exclusive.

He can’t help but feel like he’s unworthy of leading anyone, Charmy’s sheep came on their own (and were only still around because Charmy allowed it), it was Asta who convinced Henry, and Marx brought over the Wizard King’s staff.

 Next thing he knows he and Asta are being sent by Marx to each squad base to collect a list of grievances from their staff. Granted Asta was the one who convinced them that it was alright to speak to two members of the worst knight squad. He already knew Asta would be an amazing Wizard King but seeing him in action made him so proud of the junior knight.

Finral resigned himself to taking notes and providing a quick getaway in case they got caught. Of course, Asta wasn’t having any of that and insisted he take charge since it was his idea he should get to be the one to lead. Not wanting to disappoint his friend, he reluctantly agreed, but at least if things went south, they couldn’t pin this on Asta and ruin his chances of becoming Wizard King.

They started with the Aqua Deer’s staff consisting mainly of complaints about the captain’s artistic destruction. Followed by the Crimson Lions, who were mostly tired of Mereoleona’s surprise visits (somehow, she was more destructive than all the Black Bulls put together), and Fuegoleon also often held boring and redundant staff meetings. Both the Coral Peacocks and Silver Eagles’ staff were underpaid and often looked down upon for being commoners and peasants. The Purple Orcas staff were often demeaned and punished for minor offenses, and while the leadership change did help, the squad was so large that most of the knights did what they wanted with no consequences. Apparently, the Blue Rose Knights, did have male knights they just were reduced to errand boys. Captain Jack caught them soon after they arrived, but instead of cutting them up he made them write down his grievances with the other captains; mainly them looking down on him and his squad for being commoners (he was surprisingly fun when he wasn’t threatening them).

They saved Golden Dawn for last, and Finral considered just skipping it altogether, but Asta was excited to tell Yuno and Mimosa about all their hard work. Interviewing the staff didn’t take too much time, while they were also overworked, the general consensus was that they were treated better after Yuno, the peasant orphan, was recruited and the few snobs on the team had to admit that status didn’t matter as much as they thought. It was nice to hear; although he did find himself apologizing on behalf of his brother, they may not have called him out by name, but he knows how his brother gets when stressed or angry.

Finral had wanted to portal out immediately after, but Asta wanted to walk around to look for his friends. They didn’t find Yuno or Mimosa, but they did find Klaus. Or rather Klaus found them, loudly, and while he was mid-conversation with his younger brother, AKA the person he was trying to avoid.

“Asta, Finral!”

“Klaus!” Asta ran right towards them. Finral was prepared to ditch him and run away but the look on his brother’s face told him if he did, he’d regret it, so thus began his defeated march over. “Hi Langris, what a pleasant surprise, how have you been?

“What are you doing here?”

He rubs a hand behind his neck, “Haha, oh nothing, I was just, um giving Asta a ride to meet his friends, but we didn’t find them, so we were about to leave…now.”

“They are researching magical artifacts in the library, I can take Asta to meet them,” Klaus volunteers.

Finral tries to telepathically communicate to Asta, that they should get the heck out of there, but his anti-magic must also work against social cues. “That would be great, thanks!” Finral is left distraught as he watches them walk away, leaving him alone with his brother.

“A-alrighty since that’s been taken care of, I should get going, nice seeing you Langris. Don’t worry, I’ll be back later to pick Asta up.”

He would have been miles away, if it wasn’t for his brother’s death grip on his wrist keeping him in place, “I asked what are you doing here, and don’t bother lying, you’re horrible at it.”

“I told you, Asta wanted to see his friends.”

“Yes, I can see that, what I want to know is why you two are making social calls, in the middle of a strike.”

 “Wait how did you know about that?”

“Captain Vangeance told me, heard about it during the last captain’s meeting.”

“Do you talk about me often?” he can’t help but ask.

His brother smacks his arm, “That’s irrelevant, stay on topic.”

He finally relents, “Well yeah, it’s true. Asta and I got tired of being pushed around, so we decided to go on strike. We’re on day 10 today.”

“Good for you.”

Finral freezes, he wasn’t expecting that reaction at all “huh”

Langris smacks his arm again, “You’ll catch flies if you don’t close your mouth. I’m not sure why you’re shocked I’ve been trying to encourage you to stand up for yourself since we were children.”

“That was you being encouraging!”

“Obviously,” his brother rolls his eyes, “and it worked if you finally told your sorry excuse for a squad off for treating you like nothing more than a pack mule.”

He ignores the dig at his squad, to savor this moment, “So you’re proud of me?”

“Let’s not go that far, but you at least got my interest. I’m curious how you got the Wizard King’s staff involved?”

“Wait how did you know about that!” It’s only been a day, no way his brother would just know.

Langris smirks proud of himself, “I didn’t know I assumed. My meeting with the file clerk was cancelled indefinitely with no explanation, and Marx wasn’t there to accept this month’s mission logs, he’s always there.”

Finral can’t help it, he reaches out to hug his younger brother, “Of course you figured it out, you’re so brilliant!”

Pushing him away, “Quit embarrassing me, you degenerate!”

“How am I embarrassing you? We’re the only ones here.”

“My squad will be able to smell your stink all over me.”

“I don’t smell, and even if I did, we use the same soap!”

“Keep your voice down!” Langris shouts “and hurry up and get us into my room, before anyone sees us together.”

Finral can feel the happy tears, “You want to hang out with me!”

“Less crying more portaling!” He wastes no more time after that creating a portal into his brother’s bedroom, skipping in after Langris, who promptly pushes him onto his bed. “Now then, why exactly did I see you and sword boy snooping around our servant’s quarters?"

He gulps, he should have known this was a trap.

___________________

Which is how he finds himself 10 days later, preparing to shut down the Clover Kingdom capital for the day. The idea was to put pressure on both the King and Wizard King, to get them to agree to their terms quickly. His side wouldn’t be able to afford to hold off forever, it wasn’t financially feasible. But they could outlast the Magic Knights. Without Marx and the rest of the castle staff, there were no missions, no funding, and no order.

Even if they did figure out a workaround, Captain Jack promised he wouldn’t let the Green Mantises go on any mission until the strike was resolved. The Black Bulls (minus Yami) were all in agreement to do the same. No pressure or anything.

On the bright side, Langris was for the first time since they were children willing to spend time with him. He wasn’t too happy about him and Asta going behind his back to get dirt on the Golden Dawn, but he was willing to overlook it as long as he didn’t make him look bad. Honestly, if it wasn’t for his brother he would never have made it this far. Despite being busy with his Vice-Captain duties, he took the time to review all his work - he even complimented his math and problem-solving skills! All those years of trying to budget for property damage caused by his team had paid off.

He had just gotten back to the Golden Dawn base after a tiring day of coordinating portal zones with Cobb to get as many of their people to the town square as possible, then there was setting up Owen’s emergency medic tent, and he had to help Zora prep his traps just in case anyone tries to attack them tomorrow. Again, no pressure.

Thankfully his brother was never one to let him spiral. “Your face is doing that thing again, make it stop.”

“Sorry, I’m just nervous about tomorrow.”

“Why? I already told you I took care of it.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you! B-but you didn’t really tell me what you did.” His brother stares him down, until Finral gets the hint and drops it. “Yeah, you’re right, I’m worrying over nothing.”

“Good, if you’re not worried than maybe you can go back to your base tonight.”

Finral pouts at his brother, “But it’s fun staying with you, like a sleepover that never ends.”

Langris groans, “Aren’t you tired of sleeping on my floor?”

“I mean, you could always share your bed, it’s big enough for two people. It can be like old times when you’d sneak into my bed whenever you had a nightmare or got scared of thunder.” Finral easily dodges the pillow Langris throws at his head, he anticipated that reaction.

“First of all, I was never scared of thunder, I was just keeping you company because I knew you were.”

“Hmmm, of course you were.”

“Stop interrupting me! Also, we both know the only reason you’re still hanging around here, is because you’re too afraid to see your captain.”

“I’m not afraid of Yami” His brother looks like he wants to argue so he continues, “I’m serious it’s not that I’m afraid of him, but it hurts knowing that all this time I thought we were close and clearly, he didn’t think much of me to begin with. I’m not even worth a please or thank you.”

There’s a moment of awkward silence before, “Fine we can share my bed for tonight only, but if you start to snore, I’m pushing you back onto the ground. And tomorrow you’re going back to the Black Bulls where you belong.” Finral practically teleports into bed before his brother takes back his offer. “I may not be a fan of that brute, but for what it counts, I do think he’s remorseful.”

“You really think so?”

“Yes, now hit the lights, and go to sleep.”

“Good night, brother.”

Day 21

The big day was finally here, and he was starting it with a bang – well more like a shove, his brother had pushed him out of bed under the pretext of making sure he wasn’t late. Either way he felt much more energized than he thought he would be, as he transported himself and his brother to the meet up spot.

“FINRAL OVER HERE!”

“Asta, you don’t need to yell I’m 10 feet away.”

“Sorry I’m just so excited! I never thought I could make a difference to the kingdom without being the Wizard King.”

Finral places a supportive hand on his shoulder, “Asta, you make a difference to everyone you meet; Wizard King or not, I’m proud of you.”

Langris pretends to gag, “Gross if you two are going to be sentimental, I’m leaving to my post.”

 “You can go ahead and join Owen, but remember your there to guard him, not to give him more patients to treat.”

“No promises,” his brother waves himself off.

Turning back to Asta, “Is everyone else in position?”

“Yes sir! Gordon, Grey, and Vanessa are handing out picket signs. Luck and Magna are already in the capital for security, they took Nero to unlock the gates. Zora says none of his traps have been triggered, so he’s helping Gauche keep the portal zones clear of any pedestrians. Noelle is monitoring the other royals, to prevent any bad reactions. Yuno and Klaus are keeping Henry company, but they’ll jump in if we need them. Oh, and Charmy and her sheep are cooking for the event.”

“Well, if this day goes sideways, at least the sheep got their victory.” Charmy decided that helping her cotton chefs was like helping herself and agreed to their terms soon after.

“Nothing is going to go wrong! Plus, the Black Bull Workers Union basically won. Everyone agreed to help with the chores, Luck and Magna are going to keep their fights outside to not overwork Henry, and no one’s threatened or attacked us in weeks!”

“You forget we still have a holdout.”

 “To be fair you have been avoiding Captain Yami, he’s been looking for you for days. He doesn’t want to negotiate with anyone else but you.”

Finral snorts, “Yeah because he knows I’m the weak link. Knowing him he’d agree to maybe four things on our list.”

“You’re not the weak link, you’re our leader!”

“Asta that’s sweet of you to say, but let’s face it I’m just a disowned noble, who also happens to be the weakest member of the worst Knight squad; I’m less of a leader and more of the perfect scapegoat if things go wrong.”

Asta’s face turns hard at his words, “I can tell by your Ki that you really do think that, but it’s not true. Everyone here is putting their futures on the line because they believe in you. You’ve gone above and beyond to help everyone, even the opposition. Trust me, we’re all super grateful to you.”

Finral struggles to hold back his tears, “Anyone could have done what I did, I’m not special.”

Asta’s demeanor softens, “Captain Yami didn’t mean it.”

“If he didn’t mean it, he shouldn’t have said it.”

“No, he shouldn’t have, but I could tell he wanted to take it back. His Ki was -”

“We should head out; we don’t want to be late.” Finral interrupts wanting to be done with this conversation.

“Yeah alright.”

_________________

Maybe it’s because he doesn’t involve himself with anyone but his team, but Yami hadn’t anticipated there to be so many people in the crowd. There are hundreds of protestors all over the place, he has no idea how he’s going to spot Finral in this crowd. The closest he got was when he bumped into Luck, who said he’d only tell him where Finral was going to be if he beat him in a fight… it was tempting, but he doubts violence will be tolerated at the event. So now he’s struggling to make his way to the makeshift stage closer to the palace; it’s his best guess to where the spatial mage could be.

 Vaude said that the speeches started at 11, which means he’s got about 15 minutes to get to the front. “That punk better not be leading me into a wild goose chase.”.

“That’s curious, I wonder who you could be looking for.” Vanessa leers from behind him, Rouge on her shoulder.

“You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat.” He grumbles.

“And satisfaction brought it back.” She beams, “so why don’t we skip the song and dance, and you tell me why you’re looking for our dear friend, if I like your answer, maybe I can help you.”

“I’m going to agree to some of the terms and be done with this fiasco.”

“In that case no.”

“No? The Hell you mean, no!”

“Captain, I told you the first day nothing they wanted was unreasonable, if you can’t agree to all of their terms then don’t bother, and in case you missed it,” She gestures to the crowd their standing in, “this is much bigger than a squad squabble, and our boy is in the middle of it.”

“More of a reason, to end all this, you know he’s probably shitting bricks with all this. If we hash it out, he can come back home, and we can go back to normal.”

Vanessa pinches the bridge of her nose, “You might just be the most bullheaded man on the planet. No one here wants to go back to normal; they want change for the better. Even if Finral accept your terms, he isn’t going to just pack all this up and walk away, he doesn’t want to be the same guy who runs from a fight.”

“So, what do you suggest I do?”

“First, you’re going to agree to ALL his terms, the rest of the team has, just waiting on you. Then you can apologize and explain why you blew the whole thing out of proportion.”

As much as Yami would like to argue, he knows she’s right. He’s been wrong since the first day a few weeks ago, “Yeah you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” she pats his shoulder, “but thankfully for you, I found you before you blew it.”

“So can you help me find the guy or not?”

“Oh, I can’t, but a little birdie can.” She then signals to the sky, where Nero pops out of nowhere and dives towards them in bird form.

“Nero, do you mind taking the captain to Finral.”

Seeing her beady bird eyes stare him down, sends a chill down his spine, “Last time you spoke to him, you said something cruel.”

He gets a flashback of their last conversation and the shame of that day hits, “I did, and I regret it.”

“You made him cry, he pretended it didn’t bother him, but I know what I saw.”

Yami bows his head in shame, “I’m going to make it up to him.”

“Acceptable,” with that she takes off, and he’s left to scramble after her weaving through the crowds.

By the time he sees a familiar shade of green, he’s relieved that he got directions. Turns out he wasn’t anywhere near the stage; he was behind a tent handing out bottles of water through his spatial portals. Yami decides to approach slowly giving Finral the chance to bolt in case his presence wasn’t wanted. He gets about five feet from him, before Finral looks up directly at him, “Yami?”

“Hey Fin, long time no see.”

“What are you doing here?”

Yami steps closer, “I was looking for you, can we talk?”

Finral looks nervous, “It’s a little too loud to talk here.”

Pointing a thumb to the tent, “We can go in there.”

“Oh no! That’s not a good idea.” Finral frantically tries to block the tent opening.

“Why not, are you hiding something explosive in there?” he jokes.

“Something like that.” Finral mutters.

Yami can’t even open the tent before a very angry head pokes out, “Do try and keep your domestic disputes to yourself.”

“Sorry Langris,” Finral apologizes quickly.

“Don’t apologize just go literally anywhere else.”

“Um” Finral looks at Yami, “I’m kind of working right now.”

“Vice-Captain Vaude can take over.” came the cheerful voice of Mimosa. “I think he could use a break from scaring our patients.”

“You realize you’re giving orders to your superior,” Langris huffs.

“I would never!” she fake gasps, “I’m simply giving you an out from having to deal with pesky Black Bull drama.” Mimosa winks at the two over the vice-captain’s shoulder.

He grumbles, but the fact that he steps out of the tent speaks volumes, “This is beneath my position, so I expect you back promptly.”

“R-right, thanks guys.” Finral says although he doesn’t feel very grateful for being pushed into this conversation.

“Thanks, short-stack, I owe you one.” Yami

“You already owe me, and call me short stack again, and the next time a crowd gathers around you it will be for your funeral.”

“Your attendance at my funeral is appreciated,” Then turning to Finral “Shall we go somewhere more private.”

While he’d like to make his captain’s comment into an innuendo, he resists. Instead, he pulls out his grimoire and creates a portal out of there. Yami steps in without questioning where he’s being sent, and for a brief moment Finral considers dropping the portal and staying in place, but he knows he needs to stop running. With a weak smile to his brother over his shoulder, he takes a deep breath and teleports out.

“For a second there I thought you were going to abandon me.” Yami stomps out his cigarette as he speaks.

“Yeah, well for a second I considered it.” He admits.

“I don’t blame you,” Yami grins hesitantly “But at least if you did, you took me home and not over an active volcano.”

“Let’s just go inside to talk,” Finral doesn’t wait before pushing open the door into the base.

Yami’s shoulders sag, it’s never a good sign when Finral won’t joke around with him.

Finral takes a seat on the couch, “So what was it you wanted to say to me?”

Yami takes it as his cue to take his usual chair, “You haven’t been home lately.”

“I’ve been…busy. Either way I’m surprised you even noticed.”

“Tsk, of course I noticed, you had me waiting around like some sailor’s wife, waiting on her husband to come back from sea.” Yami sees Finral’s lip twitch, repressing a smile.

Finral schools his features, “Well I’m here now, so…”

“Right…” And damn he never runs from a fight, but for whatever reason the words won’t come to him, and he’s thinking that winging this talk of theirs was a bad idea. “How have you been?”

The look Finral gives him could only be called disappointed, “Yami, if I’m just here for small talk, I can’t stay. I’ve got a ton of things to do.”

Crap he was blowing it bigtime, “Don’t leave yet…fuck…I didn’t think this would be so hard.”

“Exactly why I should leave,” Finral stands up getting ready to move away, “If you ever find the words, come find me…I guess.”

Fast as lightning Yami shoots up, to grab him before he could leave, “Not yet, stay…please.”

“Alright…since you said please.” Finral muttered quietly.

He uses the temporary compliance to maneuver them both back onto the couch, keeping one hand hovering near the spatial mage to prevent another breakout attempt. They sit in silence for a while as Yami thinks of how to say what he needs to. Nero’s words from earlier are still fresh in his head, he’s already screwed up before and he can’t afford to let Finral doubt himself any more than he already does.

“Do you remember your first year as a Black Bull? The year before we got Gordon and Vanessa to join us.” is what he starts with.

“Uh, yes?”

“Good, so you remember what our missions used to be like.”

“I’m not sure any of what we did qualified as missions. You would just pick a place in the forsaken realm or common realm to go to randomly, we’d fly out, you’d see if there was anything to fight, then I’d get us home.” Finral answers easily.

“Exactly, and do you know why we did this?”

The spatial mage gives him a confused face, “Because you said a spoiled sheltered noble kid was useless to you, if I could only take you to were other spoiled nobles lived.”

“Huh, I’m sure that’s not exactly what I said”

“It’s not, I left out the expletives.”

This causes Yami to bust out laughing, “Course you did, I never could get you to swear. Guess I was right about you.”

Finral looks away, “That I’m useless to you?”

“What? No!” It’s like a bucket of cold water was thrown at him, “I meant the sheltered noble part. Fuck Finral, you’ve never been useless to me.”

“You tell me all the time, that I’m -”

“Well then I’m wrong all the time!” He grips the other man’s shoulders not hard enough to hurt, but enough so he’s forced to look at him when he says his next part. “Finral you aren’t useless, you mean everything to the team, we’d be … I’d be lost without you.”

“Well last time you got lost without me you found Vanessa, so you might be better off without me after all.”

“No don’t do that. Stop making jokes at your expense.”

“Who said I was joking.”

“Knock it off,” Yami shakes him, “the next time you say something like that I’ll…uh…rip out the last pages in your romance books, so you won’t know the ending.”

“Luck already does that; he likes to rewrite the endings to include fight scenes…they’re not all that bad.”

Damn, there goes his best non-violent punishment idea. “Fine, then I’ll invite Gordon over to your room with his creepy dolls for a sleepover, he sleeps with both eyes open you know.”

“We already do that. It’s been our monthly tradition since Gordon joined the Black Bulls, and I got him a sleep mask, so you can’t even tell his eyes are open.”

Yami slams a hand to his face, “Forget it. Just stop with the self-deprecating bullshit and let me continue with where I was going with this.”

“…Ok”

“What I was trying to say before you interrupted,” Yami covers Finral’s mouth before he can protest his statement, “The reason we went on all those trips wasn’t only so you could mark future portal spots. Honestly, I just didn’t know what to do with you. It was my first year as a captain, my Vice-Captain hightailed out of Clover the second he got a chance, Henry was still stuck in bed, basically it was just us two, and let’s face it you weren’t what I expected as my first real member.”

Finral made an offended noise, “No one made you raise your hand for me.”

“I raised my hand for you because I knew your magic would be handy as hell, which is the same reason why every captain there had their hand up for you. It didn’t matter that your combat score was laughable, not with your speed and accuracy over your spatial magic. Never crossed my mind that you’d pick the Black Bulls when you could have picked any other squad.” Yami says with a shrug.

“So, what you’re saying is you regret picking me that day.”

 Yami flicks Finral’s forehead angrily, “Stop putting words in my mouth. I’ve never once regretted picking you up that day. I’m saying I didn’t know how to handle being a captain to anyone, let alone a noble. I figured if you rejected me, it would be no big deal. Not like any noble would ever willingly choose to work under a foreigner captain.”

“You know I’ve never cared about things like that.” Finral pouts.

“I didn’t know that at the time. Thought you were just trying to teach your parents a lesson, and once you got the response you wanted, you’d request a transfer to another squad.” Yami places a cigarette in his mouth but doesn’t lite it. “When you got your summons to go home, two weeks later, I thought ‘Well this lasted longer than I thought.’ Instead, you come back to tell me your parents wanted you to quit the Black Bulls and join a respectable squad otherwise they would cast you out of the family and officially recognize your brother as the sole heir to House Vaude. Before I even got a chance to ask for your transfer papers to sign, you stuck your hand out to shake mine and said…”

“Let me reintroduce myself, my name is Finral Roulacase of the Black Bulls.” Finral finishes for him.

Yami grins big, “Exactly, after that I knew we were stuck with each other. But then I had to scramble to find something to do with you. You had no offensive magic, so I took the time to create a list of the different ways for you to fight with what you did have.”

 “Yami number one, was sending people to the moon.”

 “You can see it can’t you? So, it’s possible; now quit interrupting. As I was saying, I’m halfway explaining how to hold a dagger so you can stab enemies through small portals, when you tell me you don’t want to be violent, like at all. And yeah, I worked hard on that list, but I could tell you weren’t lying, and I wasn’t about to give you more than you could handle. It wasn’t a big deal, I could do the stabbing, and you could be my support. Got us a map of Clover and picked some neglected areas for us to travel to instead.”

Finral gifts him a small smile, “It was pretty fun, exploring new places.”

Yami smiles back, “Of course it was fun, you were with me and I’m the life of the party. Could you imagine road tripping with any other captain, you’d be miserable.”

“Well, I have recently discovered that Captain Jack could be surprisingly fun to hang around.” Finral’s smile turns cheeky.

“Since when were you buddy-buddy with the Stringbean?

“He’s been a big contributor to the cause. Even helped me write the section about proper treatment from royals and nobles towards commoners and peasants.” Finral tells him matter-of-factly.

“Remind me to cut that asshole in two after this; I’ve been telling him for days that I was trying to talk to you, and he didn’t say shit.”

“Like I said he was a big contributor.”

“Alright I can take a hint. But anyway, obviously we couldn’t just go out every day. We were running out of clean clothes, and I was getting tired of cooking all our meals, so I figured it was time to teach this spoiled brat how to function like a normal adult. Instead, you go surprising me again, not only did you already know how to cook and clean, but you were also better at it than I was.”

“In your defense the bar was low, you thought leaving blood stains on your clothes made you look tougher.”

“It does,” he confirms. “But the surprising part was that you knew how to do any of it at all. You came from the highest branch of nobility, only a step below royalty, and yet you had the nerve to lecture me about the correct way to clean or proper food handling nonsense. It started annoying me how I couldn’t get a good read on you.”

 Finral snorts at this, but doesn’t interrupt him again, waiting for Yami to continue.

“Then you go and shock me again. When Mushroom head handed me back every report I did since I became a captain and told me to redo them all. He wrote all over them in red ink, like I was some idiotic school kid, worse he did in front of you and the other captains; didn’t even think twice about how bad he made me look. Those other guys had a good laugh with that one, but not you, you took the papers from my hand portaled them away and then went off on them for being rude. Which was much more embarrassing, your angry face was like one of those little yappy dogs those old noble women like to carry around.”

“Excuse you, I do not look like a yappy dog!”

“You do it’s adorable. Wanted to toss you out a window to get you to stop, but at least you got Fuego to apologize for laughing. Was going to kick your ass when we got back to base, but as soon as we got home you threw yourself at me, crying about how those other guys were just bullies who wouldn’t be able to adapt to a new country like I had to, and how proud you were to have a captain like me. It was…a lot.”

Finral turns his head away from him looking ashamed, “I didn’t mean to embarrass you or make you feel uncomfortable back then. I just didn’t like how they were laughing at you, none of it was funny.”

The earnestness in his voice is like a stab to Yami’s heart, as if he wasn’t already feeling guilty from how he was acting for the last month. “I know you didn’t, if anything I should have appreciated more that my timid little junior officer, stood up for me.” He admits.

“It was pretty brave of me to face off against so many top officers.”

Yami chuckles, “I wouldn’t go that far, but it was impressive coming from you. After I finally got you off me, you insisted on helping me redo all the reports. Promised me you were an excellent teacher, that you’ve helped plenty of your friends write letters and even taught some of them how to read while helping them with their chores. It took a few weeks to realize your friends were employees of your manner and not literal children like I assumed. That’s when it finally clicked you didn’t give a shit about class or status, you saw someone who needed a hand, you helped them, easy as that.”

“W-well I wouldn’t give myself that much credit. Langris says that my extreme people pleasing attitude, stems from a deep-rooted need to fill the void in my life created by our emotionally distant father, and not knowing my late mother.” Finral confesses.

“That’s a load of bullsh- wait, huh… that would explain the excessive flirting.” Yami gasps, until he remembers his end goal here. “Er, pretend I didn’t say that” although he does file it in the back of his head to discuss with Langris later. “What I meant to say was that you’re a great guy, so quit being modest.” Whew, saved it.

Finral gives him a skeptical look, “Thanks…I guess. But I’m not really sure where you’re going with all this reminiscing.”

“I’m getting there,” Yami flicks him on the forehead again, “try being more patient.”

Finral rubs the sore spot on his head, “Can you please stop doing that!”

“No.”

Yami flicks him again for good measure, “Now where was I…Oh right, so after I realized you weren’t like all those other stuffy nobles, it made the whole captain thing a whole lot easier. Maybe too easy seeing as you went from Finral of house Vaude to Finral, and I went from Captain Yami to Yami. We’d go everywhere and do everything together. There wasn’t anything we didn’t know about the other. To this day you’re the only one who I ever told why I never went back to the Land of the Sun or that Yami is my last name not first. It was easy you’d step up when I needed you, and I was there when you needed me,  it worked for us. Eventually, it’s been a year, and it’s time to go back to the Knight exams to try and recruit new members. You had been all antsy for weeks, scared to see your brother for the first time since your name changed. You tried to skip going all together, but I wouldn’t let you; told you to face your fears and surpass your limits. In hindsight, not the best move, I should have known your parents would be there, and when I realized they were there I shouldn’t have left you alone with them.”

At this point Yami stops to compose himself, no use getting angry again over something that happened years ago. He hadn’t intended on leaving Finral with his parents. The idea was that Finral would go wish his brother good luck, while he investigated the rumor that a member of the famous Agrippa family was going to be there. “I missed most of what they said, but I caught the part where your stepmom was going on and on that if someone like you could get all the captain’s hands up than her precious son would also do so easily. Pissed me off, so I knew when the time came for precious little Langris to pick a squad I was going to keep my hand down, wasn’t going to give him that win.”

“You shouldn’t have blamed Langris for what Liliane and my father said, he wasn’t even there at the time.” Finral defends his brother easily.

“Always so quick to defend your baby brother,” Yami laughs. “Even if I hadn’t decided ahead of time not to pick him, I wouldn’t have. For starters, no way in hell would he ever pick to join the Black Bulls. Second, he’s way too destructive, even Luck has more restraint than that guy. Goldilocks must work overtime to make up for all the negative stars your brother has to be getting.”

“That’s rich coming from the Lord of Destruction himself.”

“Exactly so it means more coming from me. The other captains may have been salivating to get him to join, but I knew I already got the better brother. Not sure why your family is so against your type of magic, at least you know where your portals lead to.”

“He’s not that bad.” Finral mutters defensively.

Had they had this conversation a week before, he’d have reminded Finral that his brother had literally turned him into Swiss cheese just a few months ago. But now that he knows that Langris went behind his parent’s backs to insure Finral got what was rightfully his, and that he’d been there for his brother this month while Yami was busy making an ass of himself, he held his tongue. “I’ll admit he isn’t as bad as I thought he was.”

This is apparently the right thing to say, because Finral literally beams at him, “He really isn’t, he even let me stay with him these last couple weeks!”

“The fuck! That asshole said he didn’t know where you were, I’m going to kill him!” This is apparently the wrong thing to say, as any cheer Finral held a second ago is replaced by a cold look directed at him.

Damn, and he had been so close, he lets out a nervous cough, “Like I was saying, that day we took home Gordon, and while I didn’t understand a single thing he said, he meshed well with us. Nothing he cooked looked remotely edible, so he’d help you with the cleaning, and I’d do most of the cooking. Vanessa followed me home the day I sent you two on your first mission without me. Once you got over fawning over her, you and Vanessa clicked perfectly, but growing up in a cage didn’t exactly help her learn any life skills, so I left her with you to fill in the blanks.”

It felt odd thinking back to all those years ago, but once he got started it felt like it was just yesterday. “The squad shifted with those two, it was nice with them there, but things had to change. When it was just the two of us, we could get away with more, we picked up each other’s slack, but it wasn’t the same with them. To you I was a friend, but to them I was their captain, and they needed me to act like one.”

That realization came after he walked in on Gordon piercing the other two’s ears with one of his sewing needles. He had sent them off to train together, and instead they decided to goof off in the name of “team bonding.”

 It was the first time he had ever raised his voice as a captain, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but if it kept these dumbasses alive for even a day longer, he knew he had to get tougher on them. The other two didn’t flinch and took the scolding well, but Finral was caught off guard, he hadn’t done anything differently than he normally would, but this time he was being scolded for it.

“Then came Gauche, who would listen to me but not to you, so while I worked on training him as an attack mage, I had you do the parole paperwork on top of all the other forms that started piling up. He made it clear that he didn’t care about anything outside his sister, and I didn’t push it because at least I could take some heavier missions off my plate with him there.”

Gauche was his most unconventional recruit (which is saying something because he found Zora beating up knights and Nero was a bird), and when he said he didn’t care about anything outside of Marie he meant it. Finral was too afraid of him to ask him to help split the chores, and Yami needed the manpower on the field, so he didn’t push the issue.

 “I found Charmy soon after and she took over all the cooking so I wouldn’t have to, but with her came more supply runs and those had to fall on you too, since your portals made things easy. By the time Grey joined, Vanessa couldn’t be found without a bottle of wine nearby which also needed restocking.”

Charmy taking over in the kitchen was a relief it was getting tired having so many mouths to feed, even if more of the squad budget had to be moved to keeping her fed. Grey was hilarious, but at the time didn’t know what the deal was with them, it wasn’t until the underwater temple that he learned she was a girl. He felt bad anytime he told Vanessa to stop drinking, she spent her whole life controlled by the Witch Queen, and he didn’t want to be compared that old hag. But since she was now drunk more than sober it meant Finral lost his partner most days, and he would have to run errands solo, since everyone else freaked out the general public.

“During the next exam we picked up Luck and Magna, and that’s when the ‘new guy does the chores’ rule came in, but obviously Luck is Luck and he made things worse, you were too nice to leave the work to only Magna, so you’d help him out. As much of a headache those two are when together, they were also the most willing to go on missions.”

Luck is as crazy talented as he is crazy, had he been any saner Yami might have had some competition when it came too recruiting him. Magna, while talented, was still a peasant, and not even Jack with his commoner team wanted a peasant in his squad. So he took the delinquent under his wing and introduced him to some of his favorite gambling spots. Even when Finral was nice to Magna, it was clear that being around nobles made him uncomfortable, Gauche didn’t count since he didn’t act the part, so to make things easier on his newbie he’d have Finral portal them around but would have him wait outside so Magna wasn’t so tense. Finral was understanding, or at least he said he was.

 “Noelle was forced into the team by her brother and listen her “I’m royalty” thing got annoying fast, but I could at least appreciate that a Silva was putting in the work to train, so I looked the other way.”

Outside of Fuegoleon and his two siblings, seeing a royal train was unheard of. Their who thing was that if you weren’t born naturally talented you were useless. Contrary to what Nozel thinks, he’s not an idiot, he knows that having Noelle join the Bulls was basically a punishment, even if she was thriving with the squad, he knows that wasn’t the outcome anyone saw coming.

 “Asta came at the same time, and he took over just about every chore that you weren’t doing. He considers every task as a step closer to being Wizard King, so as far I could tell everything was working out fine.”

“Fine? You though that pushing the burden of maintaining this place onto the newbie with no magic was fine?” Finral speaks up again for the first time since he started his tangent.

“Look Fin, I get it -”

Finral gets defensive, “No Yami I don’t think you get it at all. We’ve all heard Asta ask why Noelle never has to help him, and you can’t say it’s because she trains, when Asta has to train harder than anyone else to make up for not having magic. He goes on more missions than Luck and Magna do, so why is he still expected to work when they weren’t. Half the team never leaves the base, but sure let’s leave everything up to poor Asta!”

“Fin”

“Don’t “Fin” me, I’m right and you know it!” He jumps up as if he’s preparing to flee so Yami has to quickly grab him to keep him down. “Let go, I don’t want to talk anymore.”

“No, we’re not going anywhere until we finish saying what we need to say,” and Yami knows it’s a dick move, but he’s desperate. While Finral is struggling to get out of his hold, he works fast to take his grimoire out of the holster and toss it where Finral can’t see.

______________

“YAMI!” Finral goes feral in his grasp.  Finral knows he doesn’t need his grimoire to portal away, that it’s more of an aid to stabilize his spatial magic, and help him travel more securely, but it also symbolizes his freedom; as long as he has his grimoire, he can live his life how he wants to live, and Yami just tossed it like it was nothing but trash.

He’s never hated the fact that he was an emotional crier more than this very moment when he couldn’t stop the angry tears from escaping. Yami sits him across his lap, grip firm enough to bruise keeping him in place, “Finral just give me five more minutes, if after that you want to leave, I won’t stop you but just give me a little bit more time to finish.”

He scoffs wetly, “Why should I? You took away my grimoire.”

“I know, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have touched it without asking.” Yami reaches to his side, pulling out his own grimoire, “Here you can hold onto mine, do what you want you can toss it, rip out the pages whatever you need to do just give me five minutes.”

Figures Yami wouldn’t play fair, he should send his grimoire to the other side of the kingdom, but as angry as he is, he would never do that. Instead, he hugs the book close to his chest, uses the pressure of it to ground him enough to slow down the tears. It takes a few minutes to calm himself, “Fine, five minutes.”

Yami’s grip relaxes, but he doesn’t release his hold, “Like I said the kid goes to extremes to reach his goal, and I respect that. Since he’s joined the team, it’s like he flipped the switch in everyone making everyone surpass their limits, even you. He accomplished in a few months what I couldn’t do in years.”

“You’re not jealous of Asta are you?”

Finral shakes with Yami’s laughter, “What? No, I’m not jealous. I’m damned proud of the kid. When he becomes Wizard King, and we all know he will be, I’m going to the first one to brag. Nah, I just didn’t think he cared all that much. Obviously, I was wrong otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now. Hell, I didn’t even care who did what, as long as everything got done.”

“So then, why didn’t you just agree to our terms the first day?”

Yami grimaces at his question, “Can I ask you a question, before I answer that?”

He grips the grimoire in his arms tighter, “Depends on the question.”

“How come you’re only mad on the kid’s behalf? I mean I was droning on and on about how you kept getting more tasks added to your plate, but you didn’t get mad until I brought up Asta.”

The question throws him off, he hadn’t anticipated Yami picking apart his reactions. “Alright, well you asked, and I don’t want to answer, so it’s your turn again.”

“Hmm,” Yami hums, “if you won’t answer, then can I tell you what I think. I think that Asta reminds you of someone you couldn’t protect, now your ten toes down fighting for a cause that’s probably more than you signed up for.”

Yami shushes him, before he can get a chance to refute him. “Shh, no talking back, you had your chance. Everyone aside from Noelle sees Asta as the team’s little brother. It’s worse for you he’s short, loud, and in your face like Langris is. So, when you see him struggling it reminds you of all the times you couldn’t defend your brother from your parents.”

“Astute observation, did they teach you how to psychoanalyze your teammates in captain school.”

“You know damn well, there is no captain school, they give you the job and hope for the best. But that’s beside the point, Asta isn’t Langris and I’m not your father…unless you’re into that than I can be your daddy all you want.” Yami says with a wink.

“YAMI!” heat was rising to his face, no way was he going think on that anytime soon, especially not while  sitting in the guy’s lap.

“Not hearing a no...”

“YOU SAID 5 MINUTES!”

“Alright, alright we can circle back when your less mad. What I mean is, I’m not some villain looking for new ways to make everyone miserable or push them too far that I give anyone a complex. Even if I was, does Asta seem like the type to just sit down and take it?”

“…no, not really.” He answers truthfully. “And I don’t think you’re a villain or that you’re too blame for…”

“Nope it is partially my fault, I was being an ass. Should have noticed that we were being unfair, and that’s changing immediately no more dumping everything onto one guy, from now on the Black Bulls work together here like we do on the field.”

“Does that include you?”

“I’m exempt obviously, but I won’t go making Henry’s life harder and I’ll try not to toss anyone out the window anymore.”

“That’s better than I anticipated, so I guess it’s a win.” Shoulders slumped, at least he got some sort of victory.

Yami gives him a blank look before shaking his head, “Nah, that’s not good enough. You need to work on your negotiating before you go back out there.”

“Well…there isn’t much more you can do. We can split Asta’s chores, but I’m not dumb I know there are things only me and my spatial magic can do.”

There’s a moment of silence before he feels a warm hand rubbing comforting circles on his back, “That’s true, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change for you too. For starters, it’s about time all of us learn some manners, so if you want to hear please and thank you, you got it. And if we ignore your day off for anything other than missions, I’ll let you reschedule it.”  

 “Just like that.”

“Just like that.” Yami promises. “You’re too much a pushover to say no to any portal requests unless it’s somewhere you never been, so if anyone gets too pushy and doesn’t take no for an answer come find me, and I’ll set them straight.”

“You realize you’re the #1 offender right. You going to set yourself straight?”

The comforting circles are paused while Yami rumbles with laughter, “OK, we compromise unless I need a ride to the John, if I disrespect your boundaries, you can send me headfirst into a lake. I won’t even kick your ass after.”

“That seems a bit too good to be true,” Finral wants to be optimistic but is still doubtful.

“Well, it’s reserved only for when I disrespect you. I’m still your captain and if I say let’s go, we go.” Words firm but not threatening. “But I can be mindful or whatever. No more late nights at the bar or gambling house…OK maybe sometimes, but I’ll take you inside with me, I won’t leave you waiting for me outside.”

“Wow all my favorite places.” Sarcasm rolling off his tongue.

“Since I’m feeling generous, I’ll even up the offer and go with you occasionally when you run errands. It’ll be like old times, and if anything, you might even get things done faster with me there.”

Excited by the offer, “You’ll actually help me carry everything!”

“Nope, but I’ll stop you from flirting, you’ll save loads of time that way.”

Groaning he should have known Yami wouldn’t help the way he wanted him to, “You know without my undisputed charm we wouldn’t get discounts on our groceries, and we go through a lot. Betty from the market, practically gives away her best produce to me.”

Yami gives him a deadpan look, “Finral, flirting with someone old enough to be your great grandmother, to save some Yul isn’t impressive, it’s just sad.”

“First of all, Betty says 82 is the new 60, and secondly she is still as spry as any other cutie out there!”

“I get it, no more dissing your girl. Don’t bite my head off.” Yami says raising his one free arm up in surrender.

“Good!”  huffing triumphantly. Clearly Yami doesn’t understand how expensive it is to keep everyone fed, otherwise he’d give Betty her own Black Bull robe for her contributions to the squad. “So, then what else you got for me?”

“What more do you want? I already gave you more than I originally thought I would.” Yami complains.

“I would appreciate if you used my name, no more calling me your wheels or any other ridiculous nickname that makes me sound like carriage.”  

The other has the audacity to pout at that, “You’re no fun, I even offered up a nickname for myself just a minute ago.” He flashes his captain with his best unimpressed look. “Fine, no more nicknames, but for the record I’m not opposed to --”

“I expect this in writing,” he quickly interrupts “everyone else already signed the agreement.”

“Write up what we went over, and I’ll sign it,” Yami hold out a pinkie to him, “I promise I will.”

“I’m going to hold you to it,” he hooks their pinkies together. “I still don’t get why it took you this long to agree.”

There’s a beat of silence and then another, before Yami lets out a dramatic sigh. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you can’t look at me.”

“What are you talking about?” But it was too late Yami had already draped his torn-up robe over his head. “Yami, is this really necessary?”

“Leave that on, or else.”

“It smells like old cigarettes.” He whines.

“Deal with it.” Once he’s satisfied that the robe wasn’t coming off, Yami started. “So anyway, it wasn’t that I didn’t think you guys didn’t deserve all those things on the list, it’s just that it’s embarrassing or whatever to realize I’m a piss poor captain.”

“You’re not a bad captain!”

“Maybe in a battle but living together shouldn’t be a fight” He pats the top of Finral’s head, “But I appreciate you saying it, even if you look stupid right now.”

“…..I take that back you’re the worst.”

“Anyway, I wasn’t just embarrassed. I was – upset, I guess would be the word- that you left me. And yeah, I get it you were just outside the base most of the time, but out of everyone I never expected you to leave me. I can take anyone else walking out the door, just not you.”

Finral takes a chance and pulls the robe off his head, allowing him to look over at Yami, “Why would that upset you?” Voice small, “It’s not like I’m anything special.”

The reminder of what he said that day hit Yami like a ton of bricks. As if he didn’t feel bad at that moment, knowing he probably made Finral feel like shit for weeks was heartbreaking. “That was bullshit, and I’m sorry. I should have never said it…it’s not even close to being true.”

He debates tossing the robe back over Fin’s head, but at this point he doesn’t deserve sparing his own dignity. “You’re different than the others, to them I was the only option, you had a choice, and you chose me.” Turning his head to face the ground, no longer wanting to maintain eye contact. “They had to follow me because I was either the only one there to save them, or of the ones who took the exam like you did, my hand was the only one in the air. I’ve never regretted bringing anyone of them back with me, and I hope they don’t resent being stuck with me.”

A gentle hand guides his chin back up, so they can face each other again. “Yami, no one thinks that, everyone here loves you.”

“Thanks” a small smile reaches his lips. “That’s why it’s different with you. I’ve never been anyone’s first choice; even Julius taking me in was half fascination with my magic and another part pity. He had other protégés, if I had decided not to go with him, he’d have found another student to teach.” Julius was persistent but Yami’s under no disillusion that he would have kept asking him, he’d give up eventually. It’s not like recruiting outside the exam was normal, not until he became a captain himself.

Which leads him back to now, “You had your pick of captains, and you chose the worst option. Let’s face it, there was no squad it was just me. Vangeance was also just starting out, but he had some of the other Grey Deer willing to follow him to the Golden Dawn, no one would follow me anywhere. Then when you had to choose between staying with me or keeping your title, you picked being a Black Bull. So, if nothing else, you will always be special to me.”

In a flash his grimoire is tossed onto the couch next to him, and the next thing he knows he has two arms wrapping themselves around his neck. Finral shifted around so he’s basically straddling him, and he’s being squeezed so tight, it feels closer to a chokehold than a hug. He’d make a joke about their current position, but the growing wetness he feels going down his neck tells him it’s not the time to joke around. Instead, he wraps his own arms around the other.

After a few minutes, Finral starts to pull away from him whipping his face with his shirt sleeve, “Sorry I didn’t mean to cry all over you it’s just that I never knew you felt that way.”

He rubs a hand on the back of his neck, “Yeah, well not like I wanted to go around sharing my feelings.”

“I’ve asked you why you wanted me to join, but didn’t you ever think to ask me why I picked you that day?”

“I chalked it up to poor decision-making skills.”

That earns him a laugh, “Don’t hit me, but your kind of an idiot.”

“What part of that makes me want to NOT hit you.”

Two hands go up in surrender, “Sorry, I take it back you’re a genius, the smartest man I’ve ever known.”

“Damn straight.”

“But when you said, it was the first time you were someone’s first choice it was the same for me. I got to the exam late, Lady Finesse was originally going to come with me and my brother, but she was having a bad morning. We waited until the last possible moment to leave in case she felt better, so by the time I got there I was last candidate number 213.”

He runs a shaky hand through his hair, “I was really nervous…Langris said I was stupid to be, since even though I was useless in a fight, spatial magic is too rare to pass up on, that I’d get picked by default. Being last made it so I had to stand there and watch as one by one people waited for their chance to get picked. I made a game of it to pass the time; I would guess which captain would raise their hand if any, for every candidate. Which is how I noticed that you didn’t lift a finger for any of the 212 candidates before me, but when it was finally my turn yours was the first one up. Captain Silva hadn’t finished calling out my number, and your hand was already in the air. I know it’s silly, but I was overjoyed that in a stadium full of amazing talent, I was the only one you wanted. It um…sounds silly saying it out loud.”

The details have blurred together over the years, but Yami does remember being annoyed that the only candidate he thought was worth his time was dead last to be called; thought it was a cruel joke to get him to stick around to the end of the selection.

It wasn’t that the other candidates were bad, but they didn’t fit the image of what he wanted the Black Bulls to look like. Technically, Finral also didn’t originally fit the image in his head, but he overlooked that because of his skills. He was wrong to think Finral wasn’t Black Bull material, and he was wrong again for pushing him away. The only thing left to do was fix the mess he created.

“You and me… We’ve been through a lot, huh? You’re always there, making things a little less miserable. Hell, you’re the one who puts up with my shit the most.” He somehow sounds uncharacteristically sincere. “Do you think we can go back to how we were?”

“No.”

Well damn, he hadn’t anticipated getting rejected flat out like that, guess he really screwed things up now.

The other must have sensed his mood drop, because he quickly follows up. “Not like that! I just meant I don’t want to go back to being the team pack-mule or being underappreciated. I like to think I’m fairly laid back, but I have limits to how much abuse I can take.”

He releases some of the tension he didn’t know he was feeling, “Ya know, you drive a hard bargain Roulacase, but I think I can live with this.”

“Shake on it,” Finral extends his hand, which Yami grasps on firmly.

 “Now this is settled you get to be the proud owner of…” reaching into a portal, “your very own official Black Bulls Working Union patch!”

Yami takes the offered patch examining it closely, “You got one with the bull ready to go at it doggy style instead? That design was hilarious.”

“Asta came up with that one.” Finral’s face goes pink at the reminder of his movement’s original mascot. “And I wouldn’t laugh too hard, you do know when the time comes, you’re the one who is going to have to teach him about the birds and bees.”

“What! Why do I have to?”

“Who else is going to do it Luck, Magna....oh goodness you want Gauche teach him!”

“Why can’t you do it Loverboy? You’re the biggest flirt I know.”

Finral lets out a dramatic gasp, “Wow Yami, that sounds like workplace harassment…we may have to go back on strike.”

“I’ll show you harassment.” Pushing the other off his lap and onto the floor so he can stand up. The other goes down with an ‘oof.’

“That hurt you know!”

He ignores the complaints to stride over the direction he threw the other’s grimoire. Finral is dusting off imaginary dirt from the drop, when he makes his way back over. “Here, I’m sorry about…you know.”

“Yes well…” Picking up the grimoire from where he tossed it onto the couch, “how about we trade.” They exchange grimoires awkwardly, it’s not exactly polite to touch another person’s spell book, let alone toss them around. “…Uh we should head back; I’ve been gone far too long.”

“Relax,” Yami laughs, ruffling the other’s hair, “what’s the worst that could have happened without you?”

____________

He’s only one foot out his portal when he hears his captain speak out, “Whelp, spoke to soon! Let’s go back.”

Finral steps out fully, surely Yami is just messing with him and... “WHY IS EVERYTHING ON FIRE!”

The only thing that can describe the scene around them is chaos, pure fiery chaos. Even the bottles of water he left behind were on fire! The crowds have dispersed and the only people he sees are a few magic knights, struggling to put out the flames.

“FINRAL!” Asta came barreling forward, “I KNOW IT LOOKS BAD, BUT WE’RE WINNING!”

“WINNING? ASTA EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!” Finral thinks he might faint…oh man, if he faints what are his chances of not being set ablaze.

“Kid,” Yami steps forward placing a grounding hand on his shoulder, before he collapses, “What happened? We’ve only been gone like an hour tops.”

“Haha, so funny story, we were all doing what you told us to do Finral, and it was going great, but then…” before he gets to the point Asta lets out an exited shriek, “WAIT A MINUTE IF YOU WERE TOGETHER DOES THAT MEAN CAPTAIN YAMI AGREED TO OUR TERMS! THAT’S AWESOME FINRAL YOU DID IT!”

“Kid focus! And quit yelling, you’re popping my eardrums.”

“SORRY SIR!”  then quieter, “So anyway, things were going great, but then some snooty knight from the Purple Orcas, called Vice-Captain Vaude, “water-boy” and he really, really hated that, so he pushed the Orca knight, but he pushed him onto one of Zora’s traps.”

“WAIT, MY BROTHER DID ALL THIS?!?” Forget fainting, he’s seconds away from passing away.

“Huh? Oh no, the trap was designed to cover the target in paint. He didn’t set off the fires, but Yuno had to drag him away before he started a fight. Anyway, Luck saw the whole thing happen and he thought it was really, really funny, so he started activating some traps too, but they all did different things. Magna saw and tried to stop him, but they ended up fighting and setting off more traps.”

“You mean those idiots did all this!”

“Nope, Vanessa tied them up with her tread magic and left them with Charmy and Gordon to watch over. Anyway, by that point a lot of the traps were set off, and one of the other paint traps hit Gauche, but he was holding his Marie photo, and he was really, really mad that it was ruined, so he was hunting down Luck to blast him with his mirror magic!”

“So, it was Gauche?”

“Not him either, Grey transformed into Marie, before he got to close and distracted him. Anyway, so the rest of us are trying to clean up from all the traps, but then a couple of nobles started bad-mouthing the Black Bulls and they even had the nerve to call Finral a disgrace and a waste of noble blood!”

“WHO SAID THAT SO I CAN KILL THEM!” Yami interrupts.

“Already taken care of sir!... Sort of-- they are still alive-- but Zora got in their faces, but then they called him a useless peasant, but then Noelle got involved!”

“How the hell did she cause this? Water doesn’t burn….” Yami glances at the burning bottles of water, “well it’s not supposed to anyway.”

“Not her either. Anyway, the nobles tried to gang up on her, saying that it was only a matter of time before she got disowned like Finral did. But they didn’t know Captain Silva was behind them, and he really, really let them have it, Captain Fuegoleon had to step in to separate them.”

“So those royal morons are responsible.”

“No Captain Vermillion got him to calm down…until Mereoleona came by to egg him on again.”

“What was Sisgoleon doing here?”

“Mereoleona is a proud member of the Black Bulls Working Union.” “How she’s not even a Back Bull!”

“Asta please just continue.” Finral urges.

“OK! This is when the Wizard King comes in he had been looking for you but now he’s scolding them for misbehaving…though Captain Fuegoleon didn’t do anything wrong… but he’s not happy and sends them plus Noelle and Zora away…which is really bad cause Noelle would have had the fires out by now. So anyway, that only left me, Nero, and Vanessa to clean up cause Henry was listening to the speeches. I wanted to listen too, but Vanessa said we had to clean up after our squad.”

“Was it either of you three who did this?”

“NO WAY! WE DIDN’T DO THIS!”

“Then who did!”

“I was getting there, but you keep interrupting!”

“THE HELL YOU SAY TO ME! KID IF THE NEXT WORDS AREN’T WHO STARTED THIS MESS, YOU’RE DEAD!”

Between Asta’s long winded storytelling and all the yelling, Finral doesn’t think he’ll survive if they don’t get to the point. “Asta, please, I’m begging you, just skip to the part where everything turned to this,” gesturing around them.

“Well, there was a few more parts I wanted to tell you.”

“ASTA!”

“The King did it!”

“Huh” Both Finral and Yami look at each other shocked. “How?”

“I think he jumped on stage when Chef Jamo was speaking and knocked over a candle.”

“A candle did this?” Finral isn’t sure what he’s hearing could be correct.

“It may have been a trick candle… I’m not too sure you’ll need to ask Henry. I wasn’t there remember, I was cleaning up after Luck.”

“You’re dead.”

“WHAT WHY?”

“Why did you waste out time, with the longest story in history, if you didn’t see what happened.”

“YOU ASKED WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU WERE GONE!”

Finral steps in before Yami kills the poor guy, “Asta it’s ok, we were just worried, but now that we know it wasn’t anyone on our side’s fault we can stop bickering and help put out these flames.” Turning to his captain, “Right Yami.”

“Oh, but you can’t everyone is waiting on you to sign the agreement! It’s why I was looking for you, they’ve been waiting for ages.”

“…..” Finral steps aside, “He’s all yours sir.”

Epilogue

He let out an exhausted sigh, as he flopped onto the battered couch in the common room. Brain fried after yet another meeting to go over the establishment of vacation days, this time for the King’s assistants. Finral doubts the two lovely ladies who follow the king around actually work in an official capacity, but he doesn’t begrudge them for wanting time away from that narcissist.

Ever since the tentative agreement was signed a few weeks back, Finral’s been busier than ever. The only person in the kingdom busier than he is the Wizard King, who true to his word, has been taking his duties more seriously. He sincerely hopes Asta knows what he’s getting into because when he peeked at King Julius’s schedule his jaw fell to the floor, and the poor kid won’t have time magic to help him out.

On the bright side, his newfound popularity has helped his reputation significantly. Everywhere he goes people are happy to see him! Normally when he walked through the street, he was either ignored or sneered at, but now they greet him – and their nice greetings! The Magic Knight accountants asked him to join their book club, the other squad members have been inviting him out for meals, even Betty gifted him a dozen extra eggs with his last order.

Plus, cuties from all over the kingdom are finally taking an interest in him! Not that he’s acted on any of the attention, his mind has just been elsewhere lately…

“Rough day?” Yami asks from his usual seat, lowering his paper to give the other his full attention.

“That would be an understatement, but we’re finally making some real progress. I’d say we should be able to finish everything up by the end of the month.”

“Good, I’m getting tired of having to cover your missions, and it’s a pain in the ass having to fly everywhere.”

“You know you could just say you miss me.”

“Hard to miss when I’m looking right at you,” putting his paper aside he stands with a stretch, “but because you’ve had a hard day, and I’m feeling generous I’ll buy you a drink.”

The thought of getting free booze instantly gets Finral’s spirits up, “Sukehiro, you are a God among men.”

“At least buy me dinner first if you’re going to get all familiar with me,” Yami cracks up, before he remembers something suddenly and laughs louder.

“But I don’t mind paying for you, after all I’m sure if you ever received a sudden windfall of Yul, you wouldn’t hesitate to spend it on your poor old captain.”

“I guess I can do that,” Finral laughs with him, not quite getting the joke -- something about him being forever broke maybe? “Anyway, ready to go? If I’m not drunk soon, I might just keel over and die.

“Oi don’t go crazy. I’m not made of money, and you need to be sober enough to get us home tonight.”

“At let me get tipsy, it’s been a hard few weeks for me.”

“Fine but no more than tipsy.”  A large hand ruffles his hair, “and for what it’s worth I’m proud of you, Fin.”

A smile spreads across his face, “Thanks Yami, that means a lot.”