Guess whose back. Dun Dun Dun. Back again.

A Date with Desitny

It was a second chance, another opportunity to make things right.

Emilia couldn't help but let out a bark of hysterical laughter at her luck. Subaru, her knight, her friend, somehow, some way was back! How? Why? The latter half was the most puzzling and gut wrenching. He didn't remember her, no rather he couldn't. By all accounts Emilia and Subaru Natsuki had never met and as much as it pained her to admit it, a part of her was relieved about that.

It was a disgusting thought, she knows. One that she immediately hated herself for thinking given everything Subaru had done for them. But it was the truth.

She didn't want to be reminded of her past and all the mistakes she had made along the way to get to this point. She wanted to deny any responsibility for what happened on that fateful day and how she recklessly forfeited the life of the one person who was the first to see her as just more than a half-devil who was the spitting image of the witch.

And she fucked it all up. Subaru suffered for her mistake. And in the end, she received zero punishment for her role in his imprisonment. No blame or consequences for laying vile accusations in the face of an innocent man. Nothing! In fact, everyone involved in his torture and subsequent murder where let off scot free. How was that fair!

It wasn't. But the bitter truth was often hard to swallow and as it was, Subaru's life was a drop in the bucket when it came to the grand scheme of things.

Although the eccentric raven-haired boy had accomplished many great deeds and surely left a notable impact on the pages of Lugunica's history through his contributions in helping to vanquish two Great Mabeasts and the Sin Archbishops of Sloth and Greed those achievements where miniscule when it came to the culpability each of the five camps played in the death of the Hero of Priestella.

If word got out the consequences could be dire. So, in a decision that she later regretted, it was agreed by everyone that keeping the circumstances surrounding Subaru's death a secret would be for the best.

It was selfish, plain and simple. They were covering up for their own fuck up, and saving face and Emilia willingly went along with it. To this day she felt a familiar guilt and shame well up within her when she thought back to seeing Subaru's corpse for the first time since their return from the tower. He was almost unrecognizable, his face was disfigured from the multiple beatings he'd endured and there were clear signs that he'd been tortured, no doubt Felix and Julius's handiworks.

She hated them just as much as she hated herself for allowing them to take Subaru to the dungeons so that they could interrogate him. Disgusting, she couldn't begin to fathom the amount of pain he'd been forced to suffer or the betrayal he must have felt when his so-called friends sold him out. What were they thinking!

Emilia couldn't begin to rationalize why they suspected Subaru to be a witch cultist or why they continuously refuted his claims of being a member of her camp despite all evidence pointing to the fact that he was telling the truth and he wasn't a Sin Archbishop. A part of her was tempted to point the finger solely at Beatrice and her rashness to label her knight a criminal with only the word of mouth to go by.

Surely, as a Great Spirit of her caliber she should have known better! Yet couldn't the same for the rest of them? What about Reinhard? Crusch? Wilhelm? The former two had divine protections that were able to divulge any truth to its user. And the Sword Devil had years of experience under his belt fighting the Witch Cult and had even slain the Previous Sin Archbishop of Pride. Surely any of them should have sensed something was off.

Were they that horrible that they couldn't bother to verify the truth?

I can't screw up like that. Not again. I'll make sure that Subaru has everything he'll ever want and more. He'll be with me, safe. Emilia assured herself that she was making the right decision

Surely this was better than leaving him to fend for himself right? She loved her dunderhead of a knight as much as anyone else, but she'd be lying if she didn't say that he attracted danger to him like a moth to a flame. At least this way he wouldn't run into some unsuspecting assassin or mabeasts that would tear him apart limb from limb.

This time I'll make sure he's properly cared for. I'll make him stronger. Emilia grimaced thinking back to how Subaru's reckless personality and constant need to play the hero resulted in him getting becoming seriously hurt. It was pure dumb luck that he survived for as long as he did.

Perhaps if they had found him an instructor in swordplay, or a form of Spiritual Art that could help him support himself in a fight then maybe he'd have had a better chance at defending himself. Anything was better than using a whip of all thing! And although he had made a contract with Beatrice, it was more of hindrance then an actual addition to his arsenal. As part of his agreement with the Great Sprit, he wasn't allowed to use minor spirits. For fuck sake he couldn't even use magic at all on the account of his gate being destroyed!

Emilia fumed, more and more the half-elf was beginning to see that they had really dropped the ball when it came to looking out for Subaru's wellbeing. He'd saved them more times then she could count. He risked his life for them. Was it really too much to ask that they did the same!?"

The half-elf was determined to do better.

She failed once already and she'd be damned all over again if she let that happen again.

Her attention turned back to the boy in question, Emilia was genuinely surprised how quiet Subaru was throughout the stretch of their journey back to her estate. It was completely at odds from what she remembered of the over eccentric boy who seemed to have energy to spare and more. Although from the look on his face it probably that he was still in awe of everything that happened so far. Hell he was practically bouncing in his seat as the Dragon Carriage they were in made its way down the road.

It was almost cute in a way in how giddy he was being. Nostalgic really, a reminder of simpler times.

"So Subaru what brings you to Lugnica?" Emilia said in a friendly manner deciding to be the one to get the ball rolling and start up a conversation. Trust went a long way and if she wanted any hope of rekindling her relationship with Subaru they had to start somewhere. Besides she was a little curious what her knight was up to before they met. He'd always been vague and hesitant when recalling his life before they met and seemed almost adamant to avoid the conversation entirely. Well not this time,

"Lugnica? Huh, so that's what this place is called. It's a bit of tacky for my taste, but then again most fantasy world builds are." Subaru muttered more to himself then to the half-elf who was looking at him in confusion.

Once again most of the words that came out of the boy's mouth made absolutely no sense.

"Well to answer your question you can say I'm a bit of a wanderer. I don't really stuck to one place for too long so I'm really bad at remembering the name of the places I visit." Subaru laughed nervously, trying to recover from his misstep. It would be really suspicious if he came out and said that he was from a completely different world. I mean who in their right mind would believe that?

"I see…" Emilia smiled, trying to keep the annoyance off her face. She knew he was lying. Subaru could never tell a descent fib to save his life and that only went to irritate further. He was hiding something, it may very well have had to do with why he was avoiding talking about his life completely and where he came from

She decided to dig a little further.

"So a wander huh? That sounds super interesting. You've must have visited a lot of amazing places." Emilia gushed, adopting the regal persona she tended to use when entertaining nobles or foreign emissaries.

Subaru appeared flustered. He didn't really know how to react to this sudden change "Well I wouldn't all that. I'm too much on the move to enjoy the scenery."

"A man with a purpose. I like that." Emilia smirked, leaning forward while casually displaying her cleavage. "Is there a dark mysterious past that I should know how about behind that boyish charm?"

She grinned from ear to ear as Subaru choked and fumbled for a response to her on assault. Heh to easy.

She continued to go one the offensive. Slow and methodical in her dissection of her prey.

"Call it a woman's intuition, but you don't seem to be the adventuring type. What with those scrawny arms -"

Subaru reeled back as if struck.

"Scary eyes." She held herself and mockingly shivered in fright as the boy hunched over in pain as his self-esteem took another hit.

Alas Emilia wasn't done. Subaru needed to learn that tricking a beautiful maiden like herself would have consequences.

She smiled and in a voice laced with pleasure.

She brought the hammer down

"Ara, not to mention your wearing such a bizarre. If I didn't know any better I'd say think you were a creepy broke loser trying to get one over on a defenseless girl!"

And it hit its mark.

"Grk!" Subaru fell on the floor, his legs giving away as fell at Emilia's feet. The half-elf smirked satisfied.

'Ah, I love it when a plan comes together.'

While Subaru was slowly recovering from having his ego stomped over repeatedly and picking himself off the floor, Emilia decided to throw him a bone. She didn't want to totally humiliate him.

"Now if were done making up stories I want you to be completely honest with me." Emilia said, her tone brokering no argument.

"I'm sorry," Subaru said, weakly crawling back into his seat as he grimaced. "It's just if I told you I doubt you believe me."

Emilia flinched, her hands instinctually tightening. A familiar guilt gnawed at her before she was quickly able to smother it.

"That's fine, if you don't want to tell me yet that's entirely up to you. Your past is your own personal business and I have no intention at prying. However if you're going to work for me were going have to really improve your appearance." Emilia crossed her arms haughtily.

By the time she was done with him Subaru would be able to take on anything the world had to throw at him. She would not repeat the same mistake as last time and allow her friend to go into the thick of danger blind.

"Huh?" Subaru gawked and pointed with his usual gusto "Wait your still willing to take me in, even after all that!"

Emilia shrugged, "I don't see why not. Sure you maybe super suspicious and a little bit of scatterbrain, but I have a good eye when it comes to picking up talented people and I can tell there's something special about you Subaru."

She said warmly, Subaru looked as if he had swallowed something bitter.

"You're wrong I'm not – "

In a blink of an eye she was in front of him, gently grasping his face and smiling at radiantly.

"Ah, Ah, Ah. None of that now, I told you that I've already decided to take you in all you need to do is say yes." Emilia spoke with fervor.

The old her would never have done something so bold nor intimate, but she knew that Subaru was the sort of an idiot to take a damn compliment unless you practically shoved it down his throat.

And as he stared into her eyes, she knew right then and there that she had him.

He was mine.

"I-I accept…" He choked out.

"Good boy," She said huskily before pull mouth towards hers into an impassioned kiss.

All mine.

Emilia moaned in pleasure and Subaru followed her example as the two fell onto the floor of the carriage.

And I'm never going to let him go again.

Boom!

Looks like Subaru's about to get some Ara, Ara, Ara action with an older woman. Hopefully this doesn't dive into the realm of rated M territory. Heh, Heh, Heh, No promises.