Dragging his feet as he shuffled through the Black Bulls hideout, Magna gave himself a hard slap to the face. It barely registered through his exhaustion— if the boy's math was correct, he hadn't had more than twenty minutes shuteye in three days.

At this point, after having to do all his chores and be tutored in his suit, he was so tired that it physically hurt. But, at long last, it was time for bed…

On the opposite side of the Goddamn castle.

A soft wheeze escaped Magna's throat instead of the yawn he was going for. Could I just ask Henry to make my room closer? He wondered through a haze of exhaustion. Well, it wasn't like he had the energy to call out.

As he plodded through the base's umbrae, the sight of a giant, familiar silhouette in the darkness perked up the half-dead ambassador-in-training, and Magna started walking—sorry, shuffling—towards it.

Out of the shifting, ominous shadows came Yami's bored visage. The first thing the dark mage said upon seeing his favorite sycophant limping closer was, "Wow. You like death warmed over."

"Thanks boss." The shorter knight said, grateful could finally shake down his Captain and too tired to understand the insult. "Hey, quick question bef-before my legs give out."

"This better not be a math question or any stupid crap like that."

"No, no, it's just…" Magna's brain short circuited for a half-second before he could recall what he was trying to say, "Why don'tcha know which nation I'm gonna be the ambassador for?"

"Oh, is that it?" His captain said with a prideful smirk growing across his face. "Simple. I don't know because I was taking a nap at that meeting."

As Magna's face shifted into an expression of horror indistinguishable from the face one might make if they'd been told their dog was just run over, Yami quelled the worst of his concerns, "Don't give me that look, you little punk. There's another meeting in a couple days, I'll tell ya then."

Breathing a sigh of relief at his captain's answer, the Tired One said, "Oh, well, thanks captain. Goodnight."

"Hold up. You're not getting away from it that easy." The Bastard One said while grabbing Magna by the collar.

Now bodily turned to face the larger mage, Magna asked, "Uhh… getting away from what, Sir?"

"Your regular training!" Yami shouted with a bigger smile than before, "I can't have you getting all soft on us, Mr.Princess, so you get to spar with yours truly!"

"Thanks for the offer, boss, but I'm kinda exhausted from… everything today." And the last few days, too, the boy said inwardly. If Magna was being honest, he felt like a walking corpse.

"Hahaha! That wasn't an offer, that was an order!" Yami hollered as he tucked the half-conscious boy under his arm, "We're surpassing your limits right now!"

"Wait!? Can't I change back into my street clothes?" Magna begged his boss, waking up slightly to ask it.

"No way in Hell. We need to make certain you can fight under all those corsets and ascots. You've got like, five corsets on under that jacket, right?"

"Captain…" Magna said with a yawn he couldn't quite suppress, "can't we do this tomorrow…" he blinked despite himself, "I haven't slept in thre—"

"—No excuses!" Yami shouted from across a courtyard, staring down his junior down from some unfamiliar patch of stone, "Now come at me with everything you've got!"

Magna couldn't remember himself or the boss moving, they were simply in a different wing of the base. Must've happened when he blinked.

"I said, come on, Froufrou! I'll even give you the first hit."

Trying to wring the tired out of his pitching arm, Magna decided he kinda would like to take out a little frustration. "Well, since you asked so nicely." He said, pitching a maximum speed fireball straight at his captain's eye.

Flames scattered across the tiles of their castle, and Yami's immense form was silhouetted in the shadows of smoke; the tip of his katana having split the attack an inch from his face. Drawing his blade overhead, he shouted, "Not bad, Princess. Now try and dodge this! Dark cloaked slash!"

A crescent of pure blackness rent the space between the captain and Magna when he brought the sword down; the fire mage barely managed to bob under the dark wave as it carved the tips of his hair from existence. In the same ducking motion, the punk drew his bat and blocked another slash Yami had sent his way.

Barely getting his feet under himself, Magna saw that the captain wasn't just sending a couple of attacks his way, but rather a entire ocean of black arcs carving towards his opponent. He tried countering with his own ranged attacks, but found his fireballs absorbed completely into the darkness, one by one. Struggling to keep his eyes open, Magna resorted to batting away the endless salvo of cuts— watching in awe as each slash dissipated over his weapon.

Nodding off for a split-second, he accidentally ducked one that came from his left… left? The young man shot back awake when he heard the sound of his captain's boots ripping up cobblestone, and caught Yami's sword through bleary eyes as the huge man leapt in to strike.

The captain had cleared thirty feet in a fraction of a second, and was pleased to see his ambassador could keep up. With his eyes, at least. "Nice, but can you handle this?"

Yami's katana came down at Magna again, and it was all the exhausted boy could do to catch the slice with his bat. Even though the sheer impact almost wrenched the weapon from his hands—and his shoulder from its socket—he could tell the captain was taking it easy.

Yami never took it easy for long.

A wicked smirk decorated the larger knight's face, and he swung the back edge of his katana at his sparring partner over and over again, refusing to give him even a moment of respite.

They were weaker attacks individually, but each swing came so fast Magna couldn't hope to keep pace, and the captain's strikes kept crashing past his guard. He took some of the blunter hits head on, bruises already forming from the impacts. They were going to leave marks, but that didn't stop his vision from fading out again— he was running on pure instinct, no longer able to keep both eyes open.

Turned out that instinct was just what he needed.

The barrage finally stopped when Magna struck his captain dead in the chest, batting the enormous man away with every last ounce of his energy. Both combatants were surprised that he was able to get a solid hit in, but Yami, despite being knocked clear into the air, still prepared his next attack.

It didn't matter that Magna was covered in nascent bruises, that adrenaline coursed like a crashing river through his veins, or that he could hear Yami drawing back for another strike. Completely exhausted, Magna Swing blacked out on his feet.

His sudden unconsciousness didn't stop Yami's attack; the dark mage still brought down his sword, and the lethal black wave arced straight at Magna.

Time slowed to a crawl for Yami as he launched his final attack, perceiving in slow motion something bad, just a moment too late.

He's stopped moving. Oh, SonofaBitch.

Faster than even his own spell could slice through the air, Yami dashed straight at the unconscious knight and protected him from the slash with his own back. Yami didn't wince as a drop of blood leaked from his soon-to-be scar, but did when Magna didn't react in the slightest to taking part of that attack in his own shoulder, or being shaken— Magna was dripping a small amount of blood, but didn't make a sound.

He took a closer look at the younger knight's face only to find him completely insensate; the bags under the spitfire's eyes looked more like carvings in wood than not, and his breathing sounded irregular—ragged even—yet Magna was still standing up on his own two feet.

Yami was simultaneously impressed and appalled . Did I really push the boy this hard?

Without a word, he slung the exhausted man onto his uninjured shoulder, and walked back into the castle. He tiptoed past the busier and louder rooms to keep away from any unnecessary noise or flying debris, but took no care in preventing the boy's head from hitting any walls or arches— what was he gonna do? Get more unconscious?

Now, the Black Bull's captain didn't hit Magna on any geography, he just didn't take care not to as he carried the boy down the tortuous halls. The base could be an honest to God labyrinth sometimes, but after nearly a decade of living there, Yami never had troubles navigating.

He gave a quiet "Yo." to Henry as they passed each other near the men's dorms, and pressed on towards the room he recognized as Magna's. Thinking better of slamming the delinquent's door off its hinges while carrying him, Yami tried the handle.

Taking hold of the metal apparatus on the door's exterior with trepidation, he twisted it slightly, thus allowing the wooden barrier to be opened with a light push. Huh, doorknob… this seems pretty useful.

After kicking a few books and a stuffed rat off the bed, he laid Magna down, taking care to keep his head still. He wrapped the cut on the boy's shoulder before too much blood hit the sheets, and set Magna's glasses on the nightstand.

Checking behind himself to be damn certain he was alone, Yami pulled the covers over the slumbering punk, and recited a quiet prayer in his first language.

Not seeing any compelling reasons to leave the room just yet, the scruffy mage pulled out a cigarette and lit it on the nightstand lantern. He let himself bathe in the warm, crackling light as he regarded the young man's quarters.

"Is this the idiot's schedule?" Yami asked himself rhetorically as he picked up a small calendar beside the lamp. Flipping through its few remaining scheduled days, he felt a rare pang of guilt. "Shit, he really hasn't slept in three days…"

Picking up a quill, the captain said to his unconscious protégé, "Don't you dare think I'm getting soft on you…"

———————————————

In the morning, on his routine jog through the base, Asta took in the glorious sunlight of a new dawn. As he ran through the men's quarters, he saw a strange object hanging on Magna's door. Leaning in to take a closer look at what he found to be a handwritten sign, the magicless boy couldn't help but grin.

"Sleeping Beauty has no classes today. Do not disturb, or else."

Asta continued his run with a cheerful laugh. It looked like somebody had gotten soft on Magna after all.