The clouds parted in the air, causing the early morning light to stream through the window, hitting Subaru's closed eyes. He blinked open them wearily, yawning as he smacked his lips, hugging the warm body next to him.
…
…
…wait, something about that sentence was wrong.
Subaru forced himself to awaken further as he analyzed the situation, seeing that he was being the big spoon to Emilia's small spoon, with her resting peacefully on his bed.
They were back to normal?
They were back to normal!
"Emilia-tan! Emilia-tan! Wake up!" Subaru urged, shaking her lightly.
And also in a compromising position, but thankfully they were both fully clothed.
Suddenly the mana in the air coalesced together, forming the shape of a small flying cat named Puck. "Lia, wake up, you need to—" The Great Spirit of Fire stopped talking, seeing the compromising position they were in. "Subaru, you have five seconds to explain yourself, now," he icily declared, crossing his arms as a pissed-off look adorned itself to his face, three semi-sharp though also blunt large icicles formed in the air around him, pointing threateningly at the young man.
"Wait wait wait! It's not what it looks like! I swear!" the dark-haired boy vehemently denied.
"You seem to be telling the truth, or at least you believe your own lies. Tell me why my precious daughter, my Lia, is resting beside you in your bed. Kids your age don't have sleepovers anymore, you know?"
"It all started last night! Me and Emilia-tan were dancing and then—"
"Why are you guys so loud?" Emilia complained, yawning as she stretched onto her back before last night's events caught up with her. "Subaru! Are we still—wait, we're back to normal?!" she asked herself, examining herself (and by proxy Subaru) in detail.
"I know, right?! That was a crazy night!" Subaru agreed, nodding to himself.
"Can someone please explain what is happening?" Puck asked, scratching his tiny head with his small paw. "I'm sensing a lot of excitement and relief in the air."
"Emilia-tan, let's get everyone in the courtyard," Subaru suggested. "To show them all."
"Didn't Roswaal-san say we should reconvene at breakfast last night?" Emilia reminded him.
Subaru's stomach growled in agreement. "Crap, you're right. Okay, first we have breakfast, followed by meeting up in the courtyard, and then we show them all," he amended.
"But Subaru, you know how I get while being watched…" Emilia reminded, a blush on her face at the thought of dancing alone with Subaru.
"Come on! You can just close your eyes and pretend they're not there," he urged, an easy-going smile on his face.
"…okay," Emilia acquiesced, sighing in defeat. "Puck, get Beatrice-sama down in the dining room, please?"
"I have no idea what's going on, but you got it, Lia!" Puck said before flying out of the room, seeking out the other great spirit. He used his magic to pinpoint the room that the Door Crossing was using and barged in. Beatrice had a scowl on her face initially before seeing the intruder, her face going all child-like at seeing her precious friend. He floated into her hands, being instantly petted and subtly praised for having soft fur.
"Puckie! It's been too long! Do you want some of my candy? I have lots just for this occasion!" she said before pulling out pieces of candy from…somewhere. Maybe she used a form of teleportation magic to conjure them, much like the Door Crossing?
Who knows?
"It's good to see you, Beatrice! But we need to get to the dining room, Lia and Subaru want to show us something after breakfast," Puck informed, getting out of her grasp, making her pout.
"The silly girl and the annoying ant are back to normal, I suppose?" she asked, an eyebrow raised as her face became stoic at the mention of them, though secretly she was very intrigued by their earlier display.
"Back to normal? What did they do?" Puck asked as the two went to the exit of the Forbidden Library and left, finding themselves near the location in question.
Before Beatrice could respond they were cajoled over by a nervous Emilia sitting at her designated spot at the table, her plate empty, "Good morning, Beatrice-sama! Thank you for fetching her, Puck."
"Where's Subaru?" the Great Spirit of Fire asked as he stayed with Beatrice who fawned over him, to keep her in the dining room.
"He's in the kitchen with Rem and Ram-san, preparing breakfast," she explained as the lord of the mansion made his debut and finally joined them, readjusting one of his pristine white gloves as he entered.
"Gooooooood morning, everyone," Roswaal drawled out like usual, sitting down at the head of the table. He shot a glance towards the kitchen, and it just so happened that the three people who were missing came out holding plates of food. Subaru, Rem, and Ram put the dish in front of each of them, excluding Beatrice as she didn't fancy herself to eating. They simultaneously uncovered the plates of food, seeing bacon, sausage, toast, eggs; it was a feast of food for an average commoner. They then served themselves and sat at the table, everyone grabbing their fork and knives and digging in. "I see your baaaaaaack to normal, Emilia-sama and Subaru-kun," Mathers said between bites of bacon. "How did you maaaaaaaanage to do it?"
Emilia and Subaru looked to each other before the former answered, "We have no idea, Roswaal-san. We went to sleep together and then woke up as normal."
"Everyone keeps dancing around the subject. What did Lia and Subaru do last night?" Puck requested again for the second time, looking to anyone who'd explain.
"Emilia-sama and Barusu became one being last night, an amalgamation of a person," Ram explained while sipping on her tea.
"What do you mean by 'one being?'" the great spirit implored further, a look of confusion on his small furred face.
"They literally beeeeecame one, Puck-sama," Roswaal answered. "They did sooooomthing last night that turned them into oooooooone person."
"That sounds…unbelievable."
"Emilia-tan and me are going to try it again after breakfast, right?" the dark-haired teen asked his former fusion partner.
She was pushing the food around her plate as she replied, "Sure, but we also have to figure out how to undo it."
"Of course! This day is going to be insane, in a good way!" Subaru cheered while dipping his buttered toast into his runny egg, munching on it in delight and excitation.
Everyone had gathered in the courtyard, with Emilia and Subaru standing a little ways away from them. Both of them looked nervous yet also excited over what was going to happen. Subaru took out his flip phone, which was steadily losing power. He had to find a way to charge it in this world.
He shook his head, shelving that line of thinking for now as he turned on the music from last night. With the song now playing he held out a hand for Emilia to grasp, which she took readily. They soon entered a slow waltz, much like last time, their feet weaving and moving in line with each other. The half elf had a small smile on her face as she remembered last night, the feelings it gave her. The dark-haired teen too was thinking of the other night, remembering how beautiful Emilia was under the moonlit sky.
The song wasn't even halfway done before the two of them were enveloped in a purple light, almost all who watched shocked at the display, besides Roswaal and Beatrice, who only raised an eyebrow at the event. Once the light died down there stood only one individual who was barefoot, wearing a combination of both a butler's uniform and white/purple robes. Their impressive stature, along with their pointy ears, was prominent along with their murky-blue eyes, which was narrowed; features of both Emilia and Subaru mixed into one being.
"We did it again! I knew we could, but it was faster this time," the fusion whooped as they shot a fist into the sky, revealing their gemstone on their navel, its light dying down until it became normal, or as normal as having a diamond inside you could be.
"What the heck?! What happened to Lia and Subaru?!" Puck exclaimed as he approached the single being, casting some magic to better understand the fusion. Puck's eyes widened when he figured out they had the affinities for both Fire and Yin. "Lia, is that you?"
"Kind of? Subaru and me are now someone we like to call…" the being paused for dramatic effect, "Virgo!"
Ram bit back a giggle at how ridiculous they were being, "Why that, Barusu?"
"Our combined name is Virgo, Ram-nee san," Virgo corrected, a pout on their face. "And to answer your question, Subaru came up with the name, saying it's a constellation from someplace called 'Japan.'"
"Nevermind that! Lia, Subaru, are you okay?! What happened to your bodies?" the Great Spirit of Fire questioned hastily, worried over his daughter and a little bit for Subaru.
"We're fine, Puck! Really!" Virgo assured, waving their hands in front of them dismissively. "I've never felt better, to be honest."
"Are you the silly girl and the annoying ant, I wonder? Or are you a new person entirely?" Beatrice inquired.
"What do you mean, Beako-sama?" the fusion asked back, combining the nickname from Subaru with the honorific from Emilia.
"That, right there. Sometimes you speak as if you are the silly girl or the annoying ant, and other times you use first-person pronouns, I suppose," the great spirit pointed out.
"An interrrrrrresting observation! Well spotted, Beatrice-sama," Roswaal praised, getting an eye roll from the spirit in question. "So, Virgo, is it?" The fusion nodded yes. "So Virgo, are you Emilia-sama and Subaaaaaru-kun combined or are you sepaaaaaaarte people sharing a body?"
"I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I'm a new person with thoughts and feelings, other times me or Emilia-tan take over, like right now for instance," Virgo explained, scratching the back of their head in confusion. "What I'm really curious of is our shared gate."
"Is that really wise?" Rem asked, getting everyone's attention. "You hardly know if you're Emilia-sama or Subaru-san or this 'Virgo' person. Is casting magic a good idea in this state?"
"But I really want to, Rem-rin!" the fusion whined. "I know that Emilia-tan can use ice magic or whatever, and I can—I mean, the Subaru part of us can use this 'Yin' magic."
"You can use Yin magic? That's quite rare, Subaru!" Virgo said to themself, confusing the residents of the mansion. "Didn't Beatrice-sama say we have both affinities?"
"I did, I suppose," the great spirit answered.
"Let's start off small, 'Virgo,'" Puck airquoted, elbowing gently into Beatrice to help him with their magic experiment. She nodded with a sigh. "Lia knows how to do this easy spell. Cast a basic Huma and let's see what it does."
"Huma?" Virgo asked before dissociating from reality, the fused individuals Subaru and Emilia having a conversation within the fusion's mind about how magic worked. After a couple of seconds Virgo came back to reality, shaking their head as an unsure smile crossed their face. "Okay, I know what to do. Let's do this!" the fusion declared before focusing inwards, imagining their larger than average gate. The Subaru part of the being followed Emilia's careful instructions, as if they messed up they could damage both their gates (hypothetically, of course). Thinking of their gate as a sink with controllable levers, Virgo imagined letting some of the mana come out and shouted, "Huma!" A shining barrier made of water formed around them, though it was thin in some areas due to Subaru's ineptitude to magic. "I did it! Emilia-tan, did you see that?!"
"Of course I can, silly, we're sharing the same body," the Emilia part of Virgo responded to themself.
"Oh. Right. Puck, Rem-rin, Ram-nee, did you see that! I just did ice magic!"
"It's technically called Fire magic, Subar—sorry, Virgo," Rem slipped, a small smile on her face at seeing their childlike wonder and excitement.
"I wonder what else I can do! Puck, what does Yin magic do?" the fusion asked the small cat.
"Well, Yin users, such as me or Beatrice, can shroud an opponent's field of view and reduce or increase the effects of gravity, stuff like that," The Great Spirit of Fire told them.
"So it's only debuffs?!" Virgo asked, incredulous. After a couple of seconds of silence the fusion cleared its throat and explained, seemingly to themself, "It's a word from where I come from. Debuffs are status effects that negatively harm the person, Emilia-tan."
"Oooooh, I get it now," the other part of Virgo said in understanding, slamming a fist into their other hand. "I only know of one Yin magic spell though."
"What is it? I'm not too well-versed in magic I can't use," Rem asked.
"The one that the fusion is probably thinking of is called Shamak, I suppose," Beatrice spoke up, being the most knowledgeable of Yin magic out of all of them. "It shrouds the target in a mist that makes them unable to sense where they are, however they can still feel the ground and sense what's happening to their body. They can't see nor hear, it's quite suffocating, I suppose."
"Whoa, I wanna do that!" Virgo enthused, metaphorical stars in their eyes at the thought of doing the spell.
"Perhaaaaaaps we should all stand back to avoid being in the croooooooooooosfire," Roswaal wisely suggested, everyone moving about fifty or so feet away from Virgo, leaving them by themself.
"Okay, I can do this! I got this, Emilia-tan," the Subaru part reassured his other half, copying what they did together with their gate at the moment so that he didn't lose control and cause irreparable damage to their fused gate. He focused on a small amount of mana coming out of their gate, opening up the imaginary waterways only slightly. When he felt it going through he, as Virgo, shouted, "Shamak!"
Immediately the surrounding area was consumed by a medium-sized purplish black cloud of mist, thankfully stopping a good twenty feet away from the group of onlookers. Virgo opened his eyes and saw the area covered in slight darkness, enough to tell them that the spell worked but allowing the fusion to navigate the dark. After a good thirty or so seconds the cloud of mist dispersed finally, showing the beaming smile of Puck, and small ones from Rem and Roswaal. Ram looked unamused while Beatrice looked bored at the spectacle. "Is this over yet, I suppose? It seems the fusion knows how to do magic thanks to the silly girl."
"Thank you for overseeing everything, Beako-sama," Virgo thanked, bowing before the great spirit. "Even though you weren't needed, I felt better having you here."
"You should be. Betty is very important. Though I do wonder something, I suppose."
"Shoot," the fusion said.
"How did you two unfuse in the first place?"
"Unfuse?"
Beatrice sighed as she explained, "You two are able to fuse together after dancing, I suppose, but how do you unfuse? How do you become the silly girl and the annoying ant again?"
"You know, the word 'fusion' is the perfect word to describe this, so I'm going to call it that," Virgo nodded to themself.
"Don't ignore me, I suppose!"
"Oh? Sorry, sorry. I have no idea how to unfuse," the fusion admitted, a sheepish look on their face. "When I first unfused we went to bed and woke up normal. But man, that'd be a pain in the ass to do every time, there has to be a better way," Virgo thought aloud.
"Maybe magic can do it," Puck suggested, placing a paw on the gemstone part of the fusion, pushing magic into it and trying to separate what made Virgo themself.
"Heh heh! That tickles!" Virgo laughed uncontrollably, pushing the paw off their gemstone, feeling better after stopping the trickle of magic enter them. "Maybe if we take enough damage we'll unfuse?" they guessed, getting a shake of the head from all of them.
"That wouldn't be a wiiiiiiiiiiiiiise thing to test, Virgo-kun…or is it sama? This will surely give me a headdddddddddddache," Roswaal noted with a long drawl before looking towards Ram, "Make sure you don't forrrrrrget to go to the village, Ram. We need those supplies. I'd suggest taking Subaru-kun but he's currently preoccuuuuuuupied."
"Go to the village? That sounds awesome!" Virgo at first said.
"No, it wouldn't be a good idea," Virgo said to themself.
"Huh? Why?"
Again, Virgo spoke to themself, "The village people don't take too kindly to me. And before you ask, it's because I'm a half-elf."
"Why are half-elves so prejudiced?" the fusion asked themself before feeling weird, feeling tingly all over as the Emilia part of the fusion really didn't want to answer while the Subaru part really wanted to know more. This eventually caused their gemstone to brighten to an absurd level before they split without fanfare, the two of them falling onto the ground with a THUMP!, separated and individual.
"We're back to normal?" Emilia asked, still barefoot as a smile crossed her face at being normal once more.
"We are, Emilia-tan! I guess the key to being fused or unfused is being in sync?" Subaru guessed, adopting a thinking pose as he stood up. "I mean, all the time we were fused we were focused and amazed together, in sync, until we thought about going to the village, where our thoughts went in different directions? Ah, this is so confusing!"
"It is indeeeeeeeeeeed!" Roswaal agreed, "Though I do wonnnnnnnder, can Subaru-kun fuse with othhhhhhhhhhher people or just Emilia-sama? I'd volunteer but I'm hesitant to dooooooooooo so."
"That's a good question!" Puck said before floating into the hands of his contractor, getting petted by her. "Subaru, you should find out if you can 'fuse' with other people other than Lia," the great spirit encouraged. "And now that I'm touching you, Lia, your gate is back to normal and you only have one affinity again."
"I'd imagine the same is true for the annoying ant, I suppose," Beatrice commented. "Did you two share memories while fused?"
"I think so, yeah," Subaru answered. "How come?"
"Nothing, I suppose. Just curious," the librarian dismissively answered. "Who will you fuse next?"
"How about you, Beako?" the dark-haired butler asked, holding out a hand for her to take. Beatrice looked at the hand in disgust before making a "hmph" noise, walking back to the inside of the mansion, leaving Subaru there like an idiot. He coughed into his hand as he looked to Rem and Ram, "You guys want to try?"
"No, but thank you,"/"Not in a million years, stupid Barusu," came the replies from the twin sister maids.
"Okay, should have expected that," Subaru said, mostly to himself. "Ros-chi, since I'm back to normal can I go to the village with Ram-nee?"
"Why, of course, Subaru-kun. Here's the lisssssssst," Roswaal said while handing over the shopping list.
The boy took the list and read it over. Well, he would have, if in actuality he could read it!
"I can't read it," he admitted with slight shame, thankfully not blushing.
Ram sighed as she took the list and read it over, "Barusu, later today I'll be joining you in your room. Be ready and awake by 8."
"Huh?" he asked dumbly, now blushing as he thought of him and Ram doing…things together. "My heart belongs to Emilia-tan, sorry."
"We're not doing that, you perverted creep. I'll be teaching you how to read," she corrected, disgust evident on her face.
"Oh, that's…real nice of you?" Subaru thanked, wondering why she would do such a thing.
"I'm not doing it to be nice. The more work you can do, the less work my dear sister has to do, which by proxy means less work that I have to do," she explained with a cold, calculating look.
"But that'll leave me with tons of work to do!" Subaru protested, a pout on his face.
"Exactly."
"Well, me and my daughter have to go and study," Puck said suddenly, trying to drag his precious Lia away from the group.
"I do? Can't I take a day off?" Emilia asked.
"Nope, no more slacking allowed! See you all!" the great spirit said as he dragged the two of them back into the mansion proper.
"I've been outside the library for too long, I suppose. I'll be leaving," Beatrice told them curtly, departing as well.
"Ram and Subaru-kun, I expect the supplies to be returned to the mansion by no later than lunch time," Roswaal told them before making his way back to the inside.
"Rem, do some chores while Barusu and I go get the groceries," Ram commanded to her little sister, said sister nodding in agreement. "Come now, Barusu, we have to head to Arlam Village."
"Right, let's do this!" Subaru enthused, walking with Ram as they made their way to the village in question.