Title: Frame the Halves (and call them a whole)
Fandom: 07-Ghost
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Frau, Castor, Labrador
Genre: General/Friendship
Rating: G/K
Word Count: 1,796
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including 07-Ghost: Children.
Notes: Introspection fic/characterization practice, mainly from Frau's point of view. First 07-Ghost fic, canon details might be inaccurate (some events and timeline were speculated). Title taken from lyrics ('Call them Brothers' by Only Son).
Disclaimer: I will never claim ownership over 07-Ghost or any of its characters.
In the year they took their Bishop Examination for the third time, Labrador arrived. Frau should have known his arrival portended the end of normality he and Castor pretended to have.
.
Frau and Castor shared the friendship of two people who were forced to not kill each other after having been made roommates. Frau knew that Castor started meditation because of him, and he might have felt guilty, only he was forced to stash his porn in increasingly fewer hiding spots lest they get burned, and that made them even, alright? So they settled into a routine of Castor nagging Frau and Frau quietly watching when Castor stared out the window on too-quiet nights.
.
Which wasn't to say Frau didn't have nightmares of his own. There were nights when he dreamt of flying with Gido and the crew. He would dream of the first flight, clinging to Gido's back and inhaling his smoke scent, and his beginnings as a servant boy, a trusted part of the team. He would dream of wide expanses of blue sky and Gido's low laughter and wake up panting, with an ache in the hollow cavity of his chest.
.
He wondered if Bastian had arranged for him and Castor to be roommates. The first time they met Castor was distant and chillingly polite. He would disappear at times and Frau didn't worry at first – he preferred going around alone, anyway. Then he realized Castor would go to where Razette swam around in the fountain pool and sit there for hours, reading or talking with Razette. He couldn't help it that he became curious.
.
It began with small things. Leaving his clothes crumpled on his bed and watching the tic above Castor's left eye. Forgetting to cap the toothpaste. Inserting his porn into Castor's books. Before he knew it Castor progressed from silent glares to unsavoury mutters to outright yells, though he always seemed shocked at himself, afterwards. Frau was shocked too, and pleased. So Castor had a temper after all, and the set of his shoulders always seemed less stiff after yelling at Frau over something stupid Frau had done.
.
It was a reward for Frau too, that Bastian had a wider smile when he saw them bickering in the corridor, saw Castor forcing Frau to study after he realized that Frau hadn't looked at the scriptures and it was three months to the exam, saw Castor half grimacing and half resigned when Razette learnt to imitate Frau's features (with his default perverted expression). These instances, when Frau peeked around to see Bastian standing in the vicinity and watching them, made Frau feel that he had done something to make Bastian proud.
.
There was something Frau didn't tell Bastian though. He wasn't sure if Bastian already knew, but when Frau and Castor had met for the first time there had been a murmur in his brain, his soul. Not a pleasant one, not an unpleasant one, but something which said he knew Castor, even if it was the first time he saw him. He hadn't known then, but looking back on it, the way Castor's lips tightened must have said he felt the same thing.
.
It was the same way with Labrador, when he turned and looked at Frau and Castor for a few seconds without saying anything. He and Castor might have danced around each other, making only clipped references to past names and piecing up the stories from any snippet of information they got from the other, but never making any explicit mention of the reincarnated spirit within them. Because their lives were horrendous enough that they might win awards for Best Tragic Movie.
But to have a third one entering the scene?
He supposed it was time they came to terms with each other, to see if they wanted to each do their own thing, or form a mismatched team of messed up world saviours and the like.
.
He turned out to be Profe. The boy's name was Labrador. Frau thought it fitting, at first – he had the doe-eyed expression puppies were naturally born with. Castor gave Frau a look. From years of experience he knew it was the "see-you-should-have-changed-your-name-too-idiot" look. Frau had learnt to ignore that look.
.
Then Frau guessed quickly that Labrador was the furthest thing from a dog; he was far more whacked than he and Castor could ever dream of. If Castor smiled like he was at a formal event, Labrador smiled like he didn't know any other expression. Even when he was not consciously smiling his face was placid, lips upturned at the corners, ready to bestow a sweet smile on the next passerby.
.
It took a long time before Frau heard Labrador laugh. Labrador smiled all the time, but the first time he sounded tickled was when Razette took Frau's face, happened upon a porn mag in his books that Castor hadn't yet discovered, and adopted the lecherous grin Razette knew but didn't understand. Labrador's lips had first twitched at the horrified, murderous expression on Castor's face, his smile widened past its usual placidity when Castor proceeded to chase Frau around the fountain, and he finally laughed when Frau tripped over the hem of his robes and fell into the pool, pulling Castor with him.
The sound was so foreign, rusty like Labrador was learning to laugh again, surprising enough that they stopped trying to drown each other. Castor let go of Frau's robes, sat up in the pool, and watched, carefully, as Razette learnt Labrador's expression.
.
They knew plants responded to Labrador. The gardens were lush at Summer's wane, far more than in the years Frau had lived in the Church. At first Labrador helped the Sisters tend the gardens. Then the Sisters helped Labrador. Frau didn't understand the multitude of flowers, let alone their hidden meanings, but he didn't know if they were necessarily good for Labrador, if the way he let his gaze turn far away when he was in the gardens was anything to go by. It reminded Frau too much of when Castor threw himself into dollwork, and when Frau nabbed a hawkzile and flew far out, skimming the sides of the valley.
.
Without consciously deciding it, they went from doing their own thing to travelling in a group, Zehel, Feist, and Profe. The many angles Frau took to examine the combination gave him… nothing. Cutting souls, bonding souls, and seeing the future…of souls. Annihilate, connect, predict. They didn't quite go together, but it somehow worked. They were each too powerful on their own, when they were together they had to look out for the terrible blades each of them wielded. Frau wondered how Verloren had managed to wield not just one but seven disparate powers, and he thought it wasn't a wonder that Verloren had eventually lost control.
.
Then Lance arrived on the scene and he was partnered with Labrador, whom he adored for no reason Frau could perceive. Of course Labrador was outwardly nice, but couldn't he sense the creepiness which still clung to Labrador like vines? Labrador seemed to accept his adoration with calm amusement though. Maybe he just liked to indulge fools. Whenever Frau thought of Lance it was with a mixture of grudging admiration (there weren't many people who could be so effortlessly narcissistic) and confusion (how did that guy survive up till now, with his incredible sense of non-direction?).
He did introduce another spanner in the combination. Going back in time. Perhaps it did complement Labrador's ability to see the future. Though unlike Labrador, Lance rubbed Frau the wrong way. He seemed entirely too normal for a Ghost, far too susceptible to human competitiveness and jealousy.
.
With Castor's and Labrador's combined force (more like, Castor's aggressive persuasion and Labrador's passive coercion), Frau memorized the scriptures after three years and could only hope that the knowledge would stay even after the exam. Castor just seemed relieved that they might actually make it through to the second stage after three years of hard work.
(Only to wonder why the second stage seemed so easy, bright light and soothing warmth as he made his way to the door and emerged, blinking with wonder, seeing Labrador two doors down, and Lance further down the line. When Frau exited his own door, expression unreadable, the examiners ushered him away and explained, to the rest of the candidates, that they had to re-take the second stage. Labrador looked like he had already known this would happen.)
.
It was entirely too strange when they parted ways after that. Bastian occasionally travelled, and Frau would follow him as his official disciple. When he came back there would be something new about Castor and Labrador that Frau had to factor in. A new greenhouse Labrador worked in when he had free time and the way his smile would turn mischievous. Frau hadn't been aware that Labrador knew the meaning of mischief. Perhaps Lance had influenced him too much in the half year they had been partners. Castor rolled his eyes when Frau told him this, and muttered something about Frau's need for self evaluation. Then there was also the way Castor had honed his sarcasm and became more comfortable in his skin. He still hounded Frau for his perverted ways (Frau reasoned that habits die hard, shouldn't Castor understand that?), but they could have companionable silences now.
.
And when they finally fought together, all three of them, Frau shouldn't have been surprised that Labrador had strange, beautiful, sick plants that devoured Wars into voids, that Castor's pretty, obedient dolls turned from service to destruction, and that they moved smoothly together, covering each other's backs.
(And he had never anticipated that Labrador would re-learn how to frown and scold when Frau got himself hurt because of his recklessness, and that Castor's shoulders would first slump with relief when Frau woke from a deep sleep, before his face would be wiped clean and he would proceed to threaten Frau with more bodily harm should Frau ever forget he had a brain again.)
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But it took years before the true extent of their reincarnated lives' purpose came to light, when Teito fell from the sky that day as they cruised, and Frau caught him as well as the relieved look in Labrador's eyes. Labrador's eyes said finally, and Frau didn't dare ask what that meant, what Labrador had seen of Frau's future. Castor, sharp eyes hidden behind the glint of glasses, connected Labrador's relief with the boy in Frau's arms, and smiled.
.
From the second Teito fell from the sky, Frau should have known his arrival portended the end of stability they pretended to have.