A/N: Omg this fic is dragging on so long, but I'll do my best to wrap it up soon. Tbh I'm not great at writing action scenes (as you'll be able to tell in the next few sentences HAHAH). Thank you for those who've stuck it out~

*LIGHT MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD*


Yami felt lips pressed against his. They were soft, and tasted like vanilla and something floral. Instinctively, he kissed back and tried to gather the body closer, but the other had already pulled away.

"Why did it stop? It was just getting good," he thought. He opened his eyes to find Charlotte Roselei paralyzed in fear.

"Y-Yami?!" she screamed, "What are you doing here?!"

He winced at the volume of her voice, especially since she was lying so close to his ears.

"Quiet down, Prickly Queen. They'll hear you and our cover will get blown before Asta can say 'I'm gonna be the Wizard King!'. You asked for this," he snapped.

Charlotte was extremely confused. "Why would I ask you to sleep beside me? That makes no sense!" In spite of her protests, Charlotte made no effort to break away from Yami's hold.

She continued, "I specifically remember telling you to sleep on the couch last night."

He clicked his tongue, "I was going to, but then you told me not to go. Just tryin' to be a good guy here." He slathered on the hurt in his voice, "You're breaking my heart, y'know."

Charlotte could not believe the words coming out of that man's mouth right now, but all five of her senses were going into overdrive. We're lying down together! He's so close to me right now, and I can't believe that I just kissed him. I just kissed him. I just kis—

The clumsy tumbling of her thoughts were stopped by a shriek coming from the hotel lobby. Without missing a beat, both Magic Knights shot up to investigate, grimoires at the ready.

Their personal matters could be discussed later.

Yami led silently, tiptoeing down the wooden floors from their room to the lobby. He carefully peered around the corner that obscured his and Charlotte's presence from the prying eyes of the intruder situated by the receptionist's desk. He brought a finger to his lips, signalling Charlotte to be quiet. The dark-haired mage scanned the room and found that the old lady who owned this hotel was restrained by some scrawny, gangly teen who hid his face in the confines of a dark hood with a spade insignia stitched on the back.

Using her mana detection, Charlotte figured that they could easily overpower this soldier. She pulled her briar sword out from her opened grimoire. With a flick of the wrist, she lashed the air, turning her sword into a whip that found its way to the Spade soldier's back.

The teenager yelped in pain. His weak magic fizzled out, setting the old lady free from his grasp. Charlotte had used more of her briars to restrain the intruder. Yami walked onto the scene, a bit disappointed that he couldn't get in on the action.

Yami grabbed the soldier by his hood and removed it to reveal the face of a young man. Yami grunted in disapproval, "The Spade kingdom must be desperate enough to hire child soldiers."

The captive winced and turned his face away from the piercing grey eyes of his captor.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much for saving me. I owe you my life!" the old lady cried in relief.

"It's alright, ma'am. We're here to help," Charlotte said soothingly.

"Why were you even targeting an old lady?" Yami demanded.

The Spade boy made no sound. He stared at the ground by Yami's feet.

The hotel owner began to explain. She was a former resident of the Spade kingdom, but she and her husband were extremely loyal to the former King Royce Grinberryall. They sensed the impending danger and fled to the Clover kingdom, where they established this small inn and have lived here ever since. It was only now that the current powers began to find dissidents to prevent information about the Spade kingdom from leaking to the other nations in the continent. She supposed that the Spades were planning to attack Clover in the near future.

Upon finishing her harrowing tale, the elderly woman asked, "Aren't you two the honeymooners in room 9? Why don't you two enjoy another free night on the house!"

"These two? Married?" the captive said, shocked, "Are you dumb, old hag? They're clearly Magic Kni—" He was met with a smack in the back of the head by Yami's hand, who glared at him threateningly. The Spade soldier chose to live and kept his mouth shut.

"What was that, dear?"

"N-nothing, ma'am," Charlotte shot Yami a look.

"There was a bug on this guy's head," Yami defended. "We'd be glad to take that extra day, though."

Why would he want to stay another night together? We haven't even discussed what happened this morning. The briar maiden's stomach was in knots. She felt nauseous at the thought of confronting this morning's events, but pushed through for the sake of their mission.

Yami, on the other hand, was puzzled. This seemed almost too convenient. Just last night, they fought against some Creepy Snake-faced guy who spontaneously burst, but this is just some kid. And Julius wouldn't send a Magic Knight captain, let alone two, on a secret mission unless the situation was really bad. "Hey, Prickly Queen, I don't think—"

Just then, one of the walls of the hotel crumbled. A large, burly person appeared. He had deep brown skin and a very muscular frame, and he wore a leather minidress and tall leather boots that stopped at his thick thighs. This man's ki had felt familiar to Yami and figured that he was the person who had seen them through their window on the first night that they've arrived at Shelion.

Charlotte quickly hurried the old woman off to safety, and stood next to Yami, briar sword ready to strike. The notorious God of Destruction grinned, sword pointed towards the new enemy. "Quit destroyin' property, you Leather Boot Meathead!"

The Briar Maiden shook her head. Her anxiety had been replaced with adrenaline, but she waited before making a move.

"Wow, aren't you two just the cutest," the intruder drawled, "The name's Merlot. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Cherie had deftly made his way behind Yami and Charlotte without notice and pushed the knights forward. His magic enhanced the attack and sent the two captains flying across the hotel lobby.

Charlotte groaned as she landed with a thud on the hotel lobby floor. Meanwhile, the hotel lobby's front desk broke Yami's fall. His heavy frame broke the desk in half.

"Mmm, I like boys and girls, but I'm only allowed to keep one pet today," Merlot said. He leapt from his position and stood over Charlotte. "Unfortunate for you, but Lady Vanica sends her regards."

Merlot raised his right leg to stomp on Charlotte's head, but Yami quickly moved to slash it and caused the enemy to hiss in pain.

"Tsk, tsk, Yami. You mustn't use up your magic," Merlot clucked, "They have better use for your magic."

The overpowered mage had cast a spell: "Muscle Magic: Body Modification". More lumps of sinew emerged from his already-muscular physique, doubling its size. "This is is just 30%, you know," Merlot said.

Both Yami and Charlotte appeared confused.

"30%? What the hell does that mean, Leather Muscle Freak?" Yami asked.

The intruder only laughed at their cluelessness, "You Clover folks are weak both in mana and in intellect. Not having useful intel on your enemy could mean death for you, you know." Merlot's large size appeared to have no impact on his agility, which threw both the captains' instincts off.

Merlot quickly made his way to Charlotte, "Lady Vanica taught me to always finish the weaklings first." This time, Charlotte had a bit of luck on her side; she anticipated the enemy's next attack by reading the movement of his muscles, and had activated her Corpse-Hunting Briars without his noticing.

The musclebound mage stepped onto a trap of briars. Tendrils snaked around his ankles, while thorns dug deep into his brawny flesh.

"You're really annoying," the mage hissed. He straightened his hand and brought it down upon the briars twisted around his legs, effectively chopping them off.

Charlotte became frustrated. How could he break her briars so easily, without even using weapons to cut them off?

Yami had used this brief distraction to cast a lightless slash behind Merlot, and brought the intruder to his knees.

Charlotte used her magic to reinforce the briars he had broken earlier, and sprouted more to restrain the enemy's hands. The thorns on the creeping twisted vines pricked against Merlot's hardened muscle and drew blood.

She moved towards the attacker and shot more stems of briarwood to further subdue him. Thorny stems coiled their way around the Merlot's body, jabbing at each protruding mass. She willed the thorns to push deeper, to coil tighter.

Their attacker was now engulfed in a ball of briars that prodded his exposed flesh; the heavy, metallic scent of blood lay thick in the air.

Yami's ki detected the intruder's intent to break free. Or rather, he felt the same swell of mana from the previous fight that created a mana bomb.

This ain't good, he figured. He knew that the Wizard King had tasked them with bringing the Spade soldiers in for questioning using Marx's powers. It would certainly help them in acquiring information about the enemy they're about to fight, but he couldn't run the risk of civilians dying in the impending explosion.

Meanwhile, Charlotte's magic continued to be oppressive. She willed her briars to crumple the large man in its centre, but was met with much resistance. Blood had spurted forth between the cracks of her briarwood, but Charlotte could sense the increasing of the enemy's mana, threatening an explosion.

"Yami!" she called out to him, but it seemed that he had already reached the same conclusion. As the enemy's mana began rapidly rising, Yami called forth his Black Moon. It hovered above the ceiling where they stood, eclipsing the sun, whose rays filtered through the collapsed wall of the building.

"Just hold tight to your briars."

"Don't tell me what to do," she said playfully.

He grinned while bracing himself for the explosion. The man, as they had predicted, combusted as his comrade had previously done. This time, Yami's magic absorbed the mana that burst forth from Merlot's body, and Charlotte's briars prevented the grisly reenactment of raining flesh.

"We make a pretty good team," both captains noted.

Charlotte released the hold once they had ascertained the man's death. She was exhausted.

"So, Prickly Queen," he said, lighting the cigarette hanging down the corner of his mouth, "D'you wanna tell me why you kissed me this morning?"

She looked away, not wanting to be interrogated now. Not after they had just been assaulted by a Spade kingdom mercenary. Still, she could feel the piercing of his grey eyes on her. Her cheeks flushed in betrayal.

Charlotte mumbled something that Yami couldn't hear.

"What?"

She pretended to scoff, "Never mind. We'd need to report this to the Wizard King."

"The kiss?"

"No," she said curtly. Inwardly, she wanted the ground to swallow her up and never spit her back out.

Yami was a man of action, so he stepped towards her, cigarette pinched between his thumb and forefinger. "No?" he asked coyly.

Charlotte felt the colour rising from her neck up and took several steps backward, as if Yami were a predator hunting her down.

"There's nothing to discuss," she said through pursed lips.

"Hm," he snuffed the cigarette under the heel of his boot.

"A-anyway, I should talk to the Wiz—"

He grabbed her arm before she could turn, and pulled her close to him. He inched his face towards her, staring at the vast ocean that lay in her blue eyes, rather than the frigid ice that it once was before.

She blinked at Yami, forcing herself to maintain her composure. The tip of his nose touched hers. She could smell cigarette smoke on his breath. She looked at his lips and lingered a little too long.

And when Yami saw her eyes flash from his eyes to his lips, he made his choice.

"All you have to do is ask."


A/N: So yeah this chapter had a few rounds of editing (instead of the usual raw-dogging here lmao) which is why it took FOREVER to update. I can't write fights for shit, but YamiChar fighting alongside each other is just *chef kiss* so I can't NOT write about them. No more fighting scenes (I think) for this story!!