Author note: I don't own Bravely Default/Second or Yakitate! Japan!
So this fanfic is for the AO3 FB Challenge going on during this July 2018! Basically what happens is that we all random got appointed pairings (NOTP, OT3, etc.), settings (tropes, canon compliant, canon divergent, etc), and fandoms (whether it's a crossover, rare fandom, current fandom, new fandom, etc.). Here's what I got!
Fandom: Crossover
Pairing: Non-Shipped Pairing/NOTP
Setting: Your Choice Setting
Working with this, I decided to do the following:
Fandom(s): Yakitate! Japan and Bravely Default/Second
Pairing: NOTP of Meister Kirisaki and Geist Grace
Setting: Post-Bravely Second and post-Yakitate! Japan, somewhat canon compliant.
Warning: Spoilers for Bravely Second and Yakitate! Japan (the manga version), takes place post-Yakitate! Japan and post-Bravely Second, NOTP Geist GracexMeister Kirisaki, and mentions of the following: death, violence, torture, abandonment, domestic abuse
Also please note that though we never see Meister's adoptive father Gordon, it was never stated in canon if he was alive or dead by the present timeline in Yakitate! Japan. Because of this, I'm assuming he's still alive.
This is my first time actually writing a NOTP as far as I can remember, so I hope you all enjoy reading this!
Not Meant To Be.
Summary: Geist thought he might be okay with this, but he wasn't. Sometimes, it wasn't meant to be.
Geist remembered seeing the man in the mask, with the blond hair and white clothes.
He reminded him of himself, when he was younger. Geist had never been blonde, granted, nor did he wear a mask, but the fancy clothes and gentle expression evident on the younger man's face reminded him of something better, of something nice and warm and it evoked a feeling in him.
He didn't expect the younger man to approach him, after some horrible people had literally shoved the Exorcist to the ground, mock-apologizing.
"Leave him alone." He heard the younger man say. "He wasn't bothering you."
One of the onlookers sneered at the man's face. "Do you know what kind of guy he is? He nearly caused a massacre!"
"That means he didn't go through with a full massacre then. Isn't that so?"
Geist swallowed. He didn't want to cause a fuss, or have some fight break out over him. Getting to his feet, he stood by the younger (and taller) man's side, glaring at them.
"Fight him and I'll kill you. All of you. And I'll undo it so I can kill you, again and again."
The onlookers and the guys who pushed him fled. Geist heard the younger man sigh, before turning towards him—only to see a mask, two blue eyes behind it. Geist couldn't read him, but he heard the concerned tone of the other's voice.
"Are you okay?"
There was no "you're a murderer?", "who the fuck are you" or "what the hell were those guys talking about?" type of phrase coming from his mouth. Just an "are you okay?"
Geist felt himself smile at that.
"I think I'm better now."
The man's name was Sylvan. But most people knew him as Meister Kirisaki, where he came from. Now the owner of a bakery called St. Pierre, he used to be the General Manager of another bakery chain called Pantasia.
"Complicated family history." was what Sylvan answered when asked why he went to St. Pierre after being part of Pantasia for so long. Both men were sitting at a café, drinking tea. They'd exchanged information since their first meeting, so they could meet again. Apparently Sylvan thought Geist was a decent person—despite the Exorcist telling him straight-up that he used to murder and torture people often.
It made Geist wonder what kind of hell Sylvan's 'complicated family history' was. He knew too well, from knowing Kaiser Oblivion, how complicated family history could be. Then again, he wasn't going to just push this kind of topic onto the second time of them meeting.
"Why are families never simple?" Geist murmured.
Sylvan chuckled sheepishly. "I'm guessing yours is complicated, too?"
"Not too bad." Geist hesitated, thinking. Did he really want to tell Sylvan about Rev, yet? "It could be worse."
At least his son wasn't dead.
Sylvan's smile faded faintly, but still remained. "My mother's dead. Father…abandoned me and my sister. We were lucky, to be picked up by our adoptive father."
The Exorcist tilted his head, faintly. He'd heard of parents abandoning children, condemned that act in all honesty, but the adoptive father…"Is he still alive?"
The younger man nodded, sipping his tea once more before speaking. "He's alive. Same with my sister. They're back in France, though."
"I see."
"What about you? Do you have any…?" Sylvan shut his mouth, shaking his head. "What am I thinking? I shouldn't really be asking about it."
"You already told me about yours. It's fair that I talk about mine." Geist decided right then that it was fair, because it didn't seem fair if the other shared something so personal and family-related and if he didn't do the same in return. "My wife died the day my son was born. My son? He…died, years later, during a Plague. I hadn't realized he was already sick with a common fever before leaving, and the plague that came for him worsened it and killed him."
Sylvan swallowed, and even if he wore a mask, he was clearly uncomfortable. "My condolences for your wife, and son…"
"Rev still lives. My son." Geist clarified. "I brought him back."
The younger man stared him, silent, his gaze dancing with skepticism before he repeated the older man.
"You brought him back? How?"
"My power." The Exorcist looked him in the eyes, red piercing blue. "I can 'undo' things as if they never happened. Death included…but my powers weren't as strong back then. I ended up placing my son's soul into a suit of armor, because by the time I returned from my voyage and found him dead, he was almost gone."
Sylvan went silent, presumably letting that sink in. And then….
"How does Rev feel? Are you and him…happy, together?"
Geist bit his lower lip, and closed his eyes, thinking of the past. Thinking of the Empire, of denying the world and building a revolution. And what happened at the end of it all?
He smiled, faintly.
"We're happy. Things….might not be the same as they were, prior to the plague, but…we're happy now."
He thought he saw Sylvan smile at that in return.
How the hell did Sylvan have the patience of a saint?
Geist knew he didn't. He almost threatened to bash a rude drunk's head in, when he and Sylvan went to a restaurant together and got wine spilled on them by said drunkard. Sylvan thankfully pulled Geist away to the men's bathroom before that head-bashing could happen.
Thank goodness for that, because Geist knew him causing any fights would be too risky, given his reputation as Geist the Bloody.
Their relations were strange, Geist had to admit. He didn't think it was quite friendship anymore, but he also didn't think it was anything of the romantic sort. Nor were they 'friends with benefits,' mind you. They liked to talk and meet up whenever they could, or talked by phone.
Geist preferred talking by phone instead of emails, because Geist knew he could at least hear the younger man's voice.
The Exorcist wasn't sure if he'd felt these feelings for anyone for a long, long time.
Especially not for a man. Definitely not for a man, that happened to be younger than him and was a baker. Not like Angelo, the Patissier, but still a baker (and his baked goods were delicious).
Geist had never thought he could be attracted to men, period. So…that took a bit of time to get used to. But after grappling with that, inside, he knew that he did feel something for Sylvan, something much like love if not love itself.
The only issue Geist had with liking Sylvan in that way was that Sylvan was so damn hard to read, and not because of the mask he wore so often. He was so calm, so level-headed, that it was hard to see if he was being polite because he was being polite, polite because that was his way of being friendly, or…?
It made Geist want to pry and poke at him. How would he react to Geist actually killing someone in front of him?
…Actually, that sounded like a horrible idea to try out. Best not to do that.
What if it was in self-defense? He supposed that might be more acceptable.
But then again, Sylvan seemed like such a calm pacifist that he might still condemn that regardless.
Ugh.
It made Geist want to bury his face into a pillow and scream, but he swore to be patient.
Maybe if he got a hint of whether the younger man liked his presence or not in terms of romantic attraction, it would be safe to tell him these feelings.
After approximately three months, two weeks, one day and ten seconds, Geist had enough of trying to gauge Sylvan's reaction.
Geist was never good at feelings. Or rather, he knew he was an awkward man in romance.
He also thought he wasn't quite right for Sylvan, for obvious reasons. Geist was a (former) torturer and serial killer. Sylvan had no criminal record that he knew of.
Geist was…Geist the Bloody. He was feared, if not just stared at with pure disgust. He was not as loveable or popular as other Asterisk bearers.
Though not an Asterisk bearer, Sylvan was a respected owner of a bakery chain. Both of them had hard pasts, but they were different types of pasts.
Geist could still not fathom the fact that Sylvan's father had abandoned him and his younger sister, not at all, and he would kill the man if Sylvan had told him that they had not reconciled.
Would it be justified to kill a man for abandoning his son for selfish reasons? Geist thought it would be.
No more hesitation, he decided.
Now came the time to confess those feelings to him.
"I…like you, Sylvan."
Sylvan blinked, stared at him from across the table.
Three months, three weeks, and a day since they met.
"You…" He swallowed, before speaking again, "You do?"
"I do." Geist averted his gaze from the younger man, the man who looked like and was nothing but an angel to him. "In the romantic sense, to clarify."
"Geist, that's…" Sylvan caught himself, swallowed this time, and their eyes met. "I am flattered, I really am. But…I don't feel that same way. I just don't. You've been nothing but good to me, and I appreciate that you trust me. I trust you, too."
"Then…" The Exorcist looked the owner of St. Pierre in the eyes, "why not? If we get along, if we trust each other…why not?"
Geist hadn't meant for that question to spill out, but it did. Sylvan sighed, looked down, then looked up at him again.
"I just don't feel the same. I don't…have those romantic feelings, Geist. I…thought I made it obvious—"
The Exorcist felt something else other than love and despair in that moment. "You're hard to read, and not because of that mask of yours."
"I—"
"Let me finish. Do you not like me because I'm some…freak, that revived his own son out of desperation?"
"No, it's not that. "
Sylvan's voice rose as he spoke, and Geist fell silent. The younger man frowned, shaking his head, before continuing.
"I know what you've done. I've heard of that long before I met you personally. But…" He swallowed, "It's not because of what you've done that means that I don't have those romantic feelings. I appreciate you as a friend, as someone to talk to. I just don't feel romantic towards you, and it's not because of what you've done."
So he knew.
"You knew of me." Geist repeated, gaze flickering into the younger man's own. "You knew of me and what I did even before meeting me. Why did you defend me, then?"
"Because no one deserves to get hurt, and I'd like to believe there is good in everyone." Sylvan's gaze turned piercing, despite his voice calming down. "My father…before he abandoned me and my sister…he'd beat my mother, sometimes. I don't know how often because I don't remember, but it was sometimes. He'd get grouchy at what she'd say, and hit her."
It made Geist angry inside. It made him want to hunt Sylvan's father and slaughter him.
"But," Sylvan managed, continuing, "After he abandoned us, Geist…we eventually reconnected. Several years later, that is. And…we just had to work things out. I've told you about how that evil bread thing influenced him? Turns out it was the cause of it."
A sigh, then, "Of course, that doesn't excuse everything he's done to hurt me, my family, and many others, but…if we never talked it out, I wouldn't have known he had that influence on him. And I know he was a kind man, before he ever created that thing in the first place. What my point is that…sure, there are people that have done bad things. You said yourself you did a lot, but…"
He placed a hand over Geist's own on the table between them. "But I think there's still good in you. And you've been nothing but decent to me, so I don't think I'm wrong about that. You told me you and your son were happy, that things were better. We shouldn't overlook our flaws, but we should also embrace the better parts of ourselves. Okay?"
Geist looked down at their intertwined hands, then up at the younger man's face. He forced himself to breathe once, twice, three times. Sylvan didn't comment and let him take his time.
Sure, the younger man didn't love him, but he also saw the good in him.
Geist hadn't realized how relieved he was to know that until Sylvan spelled it out to him.
So maybe he couldn't be romantic with him.
But at least he knew of someone that believed in him and his potential of doing good, and that was something.
A soft chuckle escaped Geist, turning his hand so he could squeeze Sylvan's own, and then he spoke.
"Okay."