.
.
.
So come on
I'll take you on, take you on
I ache for love, ache for us
Why don't you come
Don't you come a little closer
.
.
.
01. celebrity blind date
After the third woman manages to build up the courage to come up and ask for a selfie with him, Wil regrets not putting on some sort of a disguise.
Sure, he's not dressed in the usual ZOLA outfit – zippers, dangling jewelry, gloves – but his face is apparently recognizable enough that people who stare at him enough can recognize Wil Zola from what was supposed to be 'normal guy holding a tiger lily'.
He and his stylist really needs to have a talk.
But then again, he needs to have a talk with his fellow group members as well. Yuu had somehow gotten this idea that all three of them needed to have girlfriends to invite to the Vocaloid Music Awards – which was in six f-ing months and far off enough in the future that worrying about it now was really not the biggest concern – and then, even more miraculously, gotten Kyo onboard as well.
So. Now Kyo had pop idol Galaco at his side, and Yuu was still going strong with his childhood sweetheart, and both of them had decreed that since Wil was as likely to go out and court a woman on his own as a slug was likely to crawl into a saltshaker, they would set up a blind date.
And this had been sprung on him this morning. Four hours ago.
He felt like the world's biggest awkward moron, just sitting at a café's outdoor table with a barely-touched drink in front of him and a lily in his hand. Of all the things to use as a signal, they had deemed holding an almost obnoxiously bright flower the ideal signal.
"Well, lilies do symbolize eroticism and sexuality," Mew had said matter-of-factly while doing his makeup.
When Wil had choked on his spit and coughed, she had removed the brush and waited until he had recovered his normal breathing before continuing on. "Because, you see, the pistil of the flower is supposed to represent a phallus."
With his luck with people, this blind date was going to be one hell of a character. Possibly not his type. While he wasn't shallow enough to judge solely on looks, he did have his own preferences.
Wil glanced at his watch. Five minutes late.
If he had been stood up by his blind date, he was going to murder Kyo and Yuu.
"Excuse me?" a woman's voice, tinged with a smooth accent, interrupted his plans of murder. He looked up to find a pair of hands blocking the face of the lady, struggling with a lily pinned in her hair.
A tiger lily.
He stood up and nearly dropped his own flower. After letting it fall on the table, he began to lift his own hands to help her when he realized that he really wasn't the best person to help with hair.
"Ah," he began to say, unsure on what exactly he was supposed to start with.
With a huff of air, the woman patted her hair back into form and dropped her hands so she could smooth the skirt of her dress, a long-skirted, low-shouldered number with a green sash around her slim waist.
But he wasn't quite looking at the dress. He was, instead, staring at the face of one of the most famous supermodels in the world.
Maika smiled at him, flashing him those infamous dimples. "Hello," she said shyly, cheeks slightly flushed. "Are you my blind date?"
On second thought, maybe he wouldn't kill the other members of Zola. This might have just been the best moment of his life.
.
.
.
02. demon sacrifice
He was not what she had expected in a demon who demanded a maiden for a 'Bride'. Nor what she had expected from a demon – one of three – that was supposed to greatly tip the war in their favour.
For one, he was actually human-like in appearance. His skin was ash-coloured, and his hair a slightly different shade of gray, but everything else about him looked like a human man.
She had expected scales, a tail, fangs . . . maybe wings.
The demon raised his eyebrow. "Kyo's the one who has wings," he said quietly, and Maika realized she had said that last part aloud.
Heat flooded her cheeks, before all the blood drained out of her face. Would he kill her for that?
He showed no signs of being offended, however. "Your room is to the left," he said, gesturing down the corridor opposite of the entrance. "You can explore the manor, but the doors that are locked are off-limits. And don't wander off the grounds."
So, she wouldn't get killed. Not today, anyways.
Swallowing, she surreptitiously wiped her hands on her billowing skirt, and ducked her head so she could avoid looking at anything – and especially him – as she went towards the direction he gestured to.
Before she could disappear down the corridor, however, he whistled lightly to catch her attention. "Before I forget," he said when she stopped and looked at him, "what's your name?"
"Maika," she said, not giving him a last name. She had no parents, no family – no one to miss her, which had been the whole reason why she was made the Bride. "My name is Maika."
The demon nodded. "You can call me Wil. Get some rest, Maika. There's a bathtub in your room, if you want to use it. Welcome to your new home."
Then, he walked away from her.
A part of her was slightly indignant that he would so callously assume she would make this manor – the demonic manor – her home so quickly. She was a sacrifice, yes, and she would be lucky if she wasn't murdered. So far the way Wil had acted had been much better than what she had imagined and expected, but still. She didn't want to be reduced to some sort of furniture in the background.
But another part of her was a little touched. Her small shack had never been much of a home after her parents had died, filled with too many bad memories and suffering. No one had ever been very interested in knowing her name, or giving her a home, and yet less than five minutes after meeting her Wil the demon had already not only done both, but also allowed her to have some freedom wandering in his own home, letting her do as she would.
So, she retreated to her room and tried the bathtub – a large, marvellous thing that could have fit five of her, easily – before she sank into her bed, something so soft and dreamlike that she fell asleep almost immediately in.
In the times to come, she would learn that the manor, despite belonging to a demon, was a treasure trove of things to explore and do. The garden had the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen, and she was allowed to grow whatever she wanted in its fertile soils. Her room, on top of being luxurious and comfortable, came with a large, full wardrobe just for her, who had never owned more than three pieces of clothing before this.
Wil himself was quiet by nature, but he had a dry humor that came out in times, making astute, clever comments that made her giggle. He was good company and a great listener. He liked to fall asleep reading in a hammock he hung in the back of his garden.
And, despite being a demon, he came back from his time fighting in the war pale and exhausted. He would lie in his hammock in the garden, holding a book in his arms but not reading it, instead staring into the sky.
.
.
.
03. the lady's favour
Sir Wil was of Prince Kyo Zola's party. He was, really, no one but a lowly knight who had nothing but his skills and his sword.
Maika really did not care.
"If I gave you my favour," she said to him in the tent where he waited to go for his jousting match. A squire had helped the knight into his black armour, but the young boy had surreptitiously slipped out, recognizing that his knight master wanted some privacy with the lady.
It wasn't exactly proper, but then again, the jousting armour allowed for very little freedom of movement. A full-body chastity belt, in a way.
It was now or never, and since she had already half-finished the question, she might as well finish it. "Would you wear it?"
Wil wasn't much for words, that Maika knew very well. He didn't sprout poetry or sing like other knights did, choosing instead to stay reticent and in the corner in social gatherings.
But he was a knight like no other, with the code of chivalry carved into his heart. When an enemy knight had kidnapped her while she had been picking flowers for her ailing mother, it had been he who had rushed after them, barely wearing armour and still managing to fight off two assailants to save her without regard for his own safety. He helped the poor and the weak like a true knight should, and he respected everyone.
So when he nodded, Maika understood that it wasn't out of reluctance that he didn't speak up. It was just how he was, to be quiet.
She undid the green sash from around her waist and bit her lip, unsure of just where she was supposed to place it.
Wil bowed his head, letting her reach the top of the helmet easily. She tied it as securely as she could to the top, and then withdrew her hand.
"I will win for you," he said quietly when he straightened.
"You don't have to," she said. The competition was tough in today's tournament. His own prince wasn't participating, but Sir Yuma and Sir Piko had each won jousting tournaments before. "I just want you to be safe."
And wearing her favour, practically shouting to the world that he was hers. But that went unsaid.
Wil smiled faintly, and his dark eyes glittered. "I will win," he promised.
And he did, managing to unseat not only the silver-haired prodigy, but also the skilled swordsman who had been jousting for seven years longer than he had. The crowd went wild at the underdog's victory, but no one was as happy as Maika was.
.
.
.
04. meeting the brothers
"So you're Wil's girlfriend," Kyo said, sliding up to Maika with his usual flirting grin.
Wil resisted the urge to slap Kyo on the back of his inflated head. His brother's habit of flirting on every woman between the age of eighteen to death was grating on him, and the fact that he was turning this on his girlfriend was just making him mad.
Yuu wasn't much better. "You're so pretty!" he said, jumping onto the seat on her other side, turning on all of his sixteen-but-looks-fourteen charm that women apparently found adorable. "Is Wil forcing you to date him?"
Alright, new plans. Instead of dinner with the family, take Maika somewhere else. And then, come home to kill older and younger brothers.
Maika, however, was an absolute angel. She only giggled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I would hope that I'm his girlfriend," she said to Kyo. "And thank you." She leaned closer to Yuu, sharing a conspiring look. "And he is forcing me, how did you know?"
Yuu laughed, and Kyo chuckled, backing off from Maika as he recognized that this girl wasn't just some brainless girl he could hit on shamelessly.
Wil relaxed slightly, relieved that Maika wasn't offended by his siblings. So far, so good. This was about as annoying as his brothers would get, and if Maika wasn't running to the hills at this, that said some awesome things about their future together.
Until his brothers opened their fat mouths. "Hey, want to hear all about his baby days?" Kyo asked, shooting a shit-eating grin towards Wil.
"I'll go get the pictures!" Yuu shouted, scampering off upstairs.
Wil dropped his head into his hands and groaned while Maika laughed. Forget his girlfriend running off to the hills. Now he'd never be able to look her in the eyes.
.
.
.
So come on now
Strike the match, strike the match now
We're a perfect match, perfect somehow
We were meant for one another
Come a little closer
.
.
.
an i: i need more of this pairing.
an ii: i love maika's illust in the 'traditional brazillian dress'.
an iii: also, for zola, carnelian's and manbou no ane's illust are my favs. especially for wil.
an iv: lyrics are from sia's fire meet gasoline.
