Summary:
Yami dreams
Jack's motivates
and the Moms take charge
Notes:
HI!
Hope everyone had a good holiday season.
Please enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 8: Yami's Dreams
Nightmare Realm
Dread World
Yami's Dream
Having just woken up, Yami was hungry. He took a drag of his cigarette as he entered the Black Bulls' living room/kitchen area to find that his squad of delinquents and outcasts being loud and chaotic first thing in the morning. The whole team was there, and so were their house guests, so it was a full house.
"Oi, shut up! It's too early for your shit," Yami snapped, feeling an incoming headache. He loved his idiots, but he was too hungry to deal with their normal nonsense.
To the credit of his squad, they calmed down, but began greeting Yami far too cheerfully. It made a guy feel loved.
"Hey, Captain!"
"Captain!"
"Morning, Captain!"
"Sit and eat, Captain," said Charmy, waving her spatula like a sword. "I made good stuff today! Asta ran to the market this morning for me, so everything's fresh!"
Yami sat at the table in his normal seat between Vanessa and Finral. "So, what's got you all so excited? If you're doing dumb shit, I don't want to know. Gotta have that plausible deniability so Fuegoleon doesn't nag me to death."
"We're never up to anything," gasped Vanessa, grinning. What she was said what bullshit, but Vanessa and Finral would make sure things didn't get too out of control. "And besides, we got a stack of missions today that Finral's gonna divvy up."
"Uhhh, more work," complained Finral, but he'd do it all anyway.
"Don't wreck shit too much," said Yami. He began eating the food, savoring its flavor and thanking the gods that he found Charmy and recruited her.
"No promises," chorused his troublemakers.
Asta said, loudly as usual. "We always get the job done. No worries, Captain!"
"I never worry," said Yami, glibly. "But Finral, hand out those missions right away. You're my ride to the Capital for the Captains' meeting today."
Finral screeched, "What do you mean there's a Captains' meeting today? Captain, is it the budget meeting this month? We didn't do ours yet!"
Yami drawled out, "I have faith in you, my ride."
"Captain, whyyy?" Finral nearly cried, but Yami knew he'd come through, Finral always did.
"Harsh, Cap, harsh," said Vanessa, laughing.
"You're cheating, you asshole," said Jack the Ripper, nearly flipping the card table in protest. The Magic Knight Captains were at their favorite bar with the bartender-who-definitely-was-Julius-but-they-all-pretended-not-to-notice.
Well, not all the Magic Knights were there. Dorothy got dragged off by her Vice-Captain, but it wasn't as though Dorothy joined them for Captain bonding activities these days. Kaiser had to go home, since he was responsible and "far too old to be drinking and playing cards." And they never let Rill join in fear of what the younger man would do if he ever got drunk. Yuno and Langris, being newer and younger Captains, always turned down the invites as neither drank or gambled for the fun of it.
It left Fuegoleon, Nozel, Jack, William, Mereoleona, and Yami to drink the best whiskey (Fuegoleon's turn to pay) and play their monthly poker game. Not strip poker because no one wanted Mereoleona to murder them today.
Yami was having a good day.
Yami smirked at Jack as he waved his Royal Flush in the Green Mantis' Captain's face. "Suck it, losers! Pay up!"
"You're definitely cheating," said Nozel, glaring.
"Agreed," said Fuegoleon, sternly.
"I call nonsense as well," said William, frowning at his cards. "You never win. Your luck at gambling has always been atrocious."
Mereoleona burst out laughing. "Pulling out those fancy words again, eh, William? And Yami ain't cheating. If he were cheating, I'd know. And then he'd be dead." Mereoleona said that with a wicked grin that had Yami's stomach dropping. As much as he hated to admit it, but she intimidated him. The way the others tensed, he knew that he wasn't the only one that she scared shitless.
"One more round," demanded Jack.
"You're on! Double or nothing," said Yami, cockily.
Yami bit the butt of his cigarette as Jack half-carried him to his bedroom in the middle of the night. Jack grumbled about being stuck with ferrying Yami's drunk-ass home. (Finral was already asleep in his room with his girl, and Yami wasn't that much of a jerk to interrupt). A familiar frustrating feeling built up in Yami's chest. Jack and the other Captains never went out of their way to make sure that Yami got home safely after a night of drinking and carousing.
Not until…
Shaking his head, Yami landed haphazardly on his bed while Jack, who held his liquor remarkably well for a string-bean man, gave him an unimpressed look. Yami kicked off his boots at Jack's face.
"You need to get your shit together, dumbass," said Jack, dodging the boots.
"Shut up."
"It's kind of pathetic."
"I hate you."
"Listen, man, you can't just…keep ignoring your grief—" Jack started.
"No," Yami said, gruffly. "I'm gonna stop you right there. I've already gotten this speech from Julius, William, Fuegoleon, Braids, Sisgoleon, and Vanessa, so I don't god-damn need to hear it from you too!"
Jack sighed. "You stubborn ass. I don't know what she ever saw in you."
"Get the fuck out."
"Captain," greeted Vanessa. She sat in the dark on the couch. Vanessa often didn't sleep at night, something about bad dreams she once told him. She slept better in the day, especially when she was nursing a hang-over (though she didn't drink as much as she used to when she began training earnestly). She had a small glass in her hand. "I saw Captain Jack brought you home this time."
"What time is it?"
"Late enough for everyone to be asleep but not nearly early enough for Charmy, Ember and Uncles to be up."
"You gonna share?"
"No," said Vanessa, a bit of an edge to her refusal. There would be one time where she'd agree in a heart-beat, but she grew up in a short amount of time (when Asta and Noelle joined, the Black Bulls changed) and she pushed back when Yami needed her to do so. Between Vanessa and Finral, they've been taking care of him more and more lately. It was…unsettling because Yami didn't know what he'd do without them.
He wondered if this was what Julius felt towards him and William.
"Stingy," said Yami, sitting next to her.
"You ready to talk yet?"
"No."
"Then, my stinginess will keep."
"Great."
"Love you too, Captain."
The Waking World
Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Black Bulls Headquarters
Family Day
Yami's Room
2pm
Jack the Ripper wasn't a sentimental man. He wasn't very nice and spent most of his time wanting to cut people up. But he still felt empathy and sympathy for others deep in his heart. His fellow Magic Knight Captains were the closest people that he can call his friends (even if he used the word loosely). Jack wasn't that worried about Yami. After all, Yami was Yami and the big idiot would survive to annoy Jack another day even if he had to crawl out of hell to do it.
"Well, you look terrible," said Jack.
Charlotte Roselei leveled him with one of her Ice Queen stares. He had known her long-enough not to be bothered by her piercing blue eyes. "I am aware, Jack."
"I still say that you can do better than this dumbass," said Jack, arms crossed. "But you ain't doing yourself any favors by tending to his bedside, Roselei. You got a squad to lead, don't ya?"
She frowned, as she weighed her next words. "You may be correct in your assessment, but when I can't help him other than to be by his side, then that's what I must do. I thank you for the concern."
Jack rolled his eyes. He said, "Rumor has it that Sal is grabbing up the best investigators from each of the squads, so I'd thought that you might want in." He had it on good authority from Mereoleona that Sal had already pulled two of Rill's squad and put them on someone's trail.
This news got Charlotte's attention. What many might not have known about Charlotte was that she wasn't just a stellar fighter, but she knew how to investigate and had been in that position before she became a Magic Knight Captain. "Sal must have come up with a theory." Charlotte glanced at Yami. She bit her lip, clearly torn.
"Don't you got a whole squad that do anything for you," Jack questioned.
Charlotte stood up, full of confidence and her steely demeanor metaphorically became her armor over her heart and he knew that she understood. "I'll speak with Nozel. I'll leave Wainsley and Borja here. Do you know where Sal happens to be?"
"Nah, but I'm sure that she's still lurking about the Capital," said Jack. He turned around and headed out of the room. She still had things to do but he needed to zip back to the Capital ASAP. The Family Day celebrations weren't quite over for the day. "I'll meet you there."
If Charlotte thought that he wasn't joining her in investigating which ass-sack had the balls to attack the Black Bulls when they were all sleeping in the middle of the night, she had another thing coming.
Charlotte said, graciously, "Thank you, Jack. I'll see you later."
"Yeah, well, whatever."
The Waking World
Clover Kingdom
Forsaken Realm
Black Bulls Headquarters
Family Day
The Living Room
2:15 pm
Whatever was happening in the Black Bulls' living room/kitchen area, Nozel didn't deserve it. He made up for his past misdeeds and poor behavior towards his sister, his cousins, the commoners in the Magic Knights and just people in general. He definitely didn't deserve ten Mothers (even if it was actually six mothers, one step-mother, two sisters of the cloth and one Aunt) giving him Looks as they discussed the situation without any input from him.
Fuegoleon is gonna pay for this, thought Nozel. Logically, he knew that Fuegoleon had responsibilities as Wizard King and left Nozel in charge for a reason. Nozel gladly watched over the Black Bulls but at the moment, he wished that he could just hide in Noelle's room until Dorothy came through with a win.
And Jack definitely was gonna get it as Nozel watched the Green Mantis Captain see the collective Mothers and jumped out the window before they saw him, though they definitely did. That bastard.
The Mothers were speaking of what to do with the Black Bulls' bedside guards, especially Finesse, Yuno, Kirsch and Charlotte, who were taking things very badly. He missed part of the conversation out of pure nerves. Women were terrifying.
"So, it's agreed," said Lady Solace, nodding. Fuegoleon, Mereoleona and Leopold's mother was not a woman to defy.
"Wranglin' 'em is gonna be tough," said Miss Shula. Nozel had only met Magna Swing's mother once and he knew that she didn't take anyone's crap.
"They will listen," said Aunt Nickole, steel in her voice. "We can't have them falling apart at the seams." Nozel felt a shiver run down his spine. There were often occasions that Aunt Nickole reminded Nozel of his mother (Aunt Nickole's sister). His mother never raised her voice but still demanded respect.
"It's for their best interest," said Sister Lily. Anyone who was able to deal with Asta and Yuno as children must be someone special. A biological mother she was not, but the mother of their hearts she was.
"Such stubborn children," said Lady Ruth, with a huff of annoyance. Charlotte's aunt and the former Captain of the Blue Rose Knights was a force.
"Ain't that the truth, Ruth," said Sister Theresa, the woman who trained Fuegoleon and started Mereoleona's training.
"With us here, they shouldn't worry so much," said Aerin Underfoot, Charmy's mother.
"Quite," said Jonna, Gordon's mother.
"I will make sure that Finesse isn't overexerting herself," said Lady Mirinesse, Finesse's step-mother. Lady Mirinesse arrived an hour ago, after Queen Hildemare sent her a private message.
From what Nozel knew from Capital's rumor mill, Finesse's biological mother Kirinesse was often "unwell," feigning illness in her fancy castle elsewhere in the kingdom. Lady Mirinesse (a cousin of Finesse's biological mother actually) had married Finesse's father after Finesse's parents divorced back when Finesse was a pre-teen. Nozel knew Lady Mirinesse from Magic Parliament as she had a brilliant legal and political mind and ran the Calmreich side of the Kira Clover House effectively.
Speaking of the Queen of the Clover Kingdom, Queen Hildemare stood amongst the mothers. "We'll hold the fort, so to speak, until we hear from Captain Unsworth and Lord Vangeance. Is this all acceptable with you, Lord Nozel?"
Nozel tried not to tense too much as ten pairs of eyes focused on him. Out of the corner of his eye, Prince Con and Miss Aubrey made themselves as small as possible as they were sitting on the couch, sorting supplies. Smart kids, he thought. Nozel awkwardly cleared his throat. "I will follow your leads, but I think you might find it difficult to make certain people take breaks."
"It's cute that you think they have a choice," said Lady Solace, grinning eerily like Mereoleona.
"And if you think that you're running yourself ragged as well, Nozel, you have another thing coming," said Aunt Nickole.
Nozel almost made the mistake and argued with his aunt but thankfully, Charlotte came down the stairs and saved him from making that gaffe. She looked far more put together than she did when he checked up on her earlier. Perhaps that's why Jack showed up.
Charlotte wasn't intimidated by the force of Mothers and said, "Wainsley and Borja will stay and assist here in any way they can. I am going to help Sal with investigating. Please call me if anything changes."
"Very good," said Lady Ruth, appraising her niece. Proud fondness seeped in her tone when she spoke to Charlotte. "Make sure that you eat something and rest. Remember that you represent the Blue Rose Knights and House Roselei, Charlotte."
"Yes, Aunt Ruth," replied Charlotte, solemnly.
"Don't get distracted by foolish things. Keep your focus," said Aunt Nickole. "And remember sometimes the answer might be the most obvious one."
"I remember," said Charlotte nodding in agreement. Nozel could never forget that Charlotte had been trained by Lady Ruth and Aunt Nickole. Charlotte was terrifying when she wanted to be and it was no wonder when she was trained by those two. "I will take my leave."
Once Charlotte left, the focus of the combined might of maternal love was back on Nozel.
He said, "I'm gonna make rounds again."
If he had been a lesser man, he'd have run up the stairs.
~to be continued
Let me know what you think!
There will be two chapters out in FEB, but definitely back to one in MARCH