It was a normal night at the Black Bulls hideout. Asta, Gauche, Grey, and Charmy were eating after their hard day of training, with Noelle taking occasional glances at Asta's terrible table manners from the side. Zora was nowhere to be seen, but knowing him, he was probably nearby. Nero was sleeping in Asta's room, as she had spent all of her energy that day practicing her sealing magic, and Gordon was in the corner by himself, as usual, writing in his diary. Yami was in the bathroom… as usual, with Finral teleporting him extra toilet paper… also as usual, and Vanessa was drinking- she had recently got her hands on a 25-year vintage wine that she was very thoroughly enjoying- at least until Magna came dashing down from the second floor.
Obviously out of breath, Magna asked, "Vanessa, did you see Luck anywhere?"
"No, do you expect me to keep an eye on him all the time? You know how he is… wait, are you going for a new look? It's refreshing," Vanessa remarked, referencing Magna's currently sunglass-less self, taking yet another swig of her wine bottle. Magna was less than pleased at her mentioning this. Scrunching up his face, Magna started screaming,
"AHHHHHHHH! HE TOOK MY DAMN SUNGLASSES! AHHHHHHH!"
...Well, it was as normal a night as it could've been, considering the fact that the threat of the Spade Kingdom was looming on the horizon.
"Look at that idiot.", Noelle remarked, sighing, obviously referring to Magna and his antics as she naturally sat down next to Asta. Asta stopped eating for a second, and replied frankly, "But isn't that pretty normal?" making Noelle feel a little more than just awkward, and the rest of the people eating chuckle softly, except for Charmy, who just continued to eat.
Noelle continued in vain, "Where the hell is THAT considered normal?"
"Here, no?", replied Asta again, quite frankly, garnering some more chuckles from the group, which now included Vanessa who had decided to save the wine for a quieter time. Noelle collapsed backward into her seat and sighed, pushing out the last bit of breath that she still had. She was at a loss for words, as this was one of the very rare occasions that Asta was actually right. All of this WAS normal, and she was the one that had to get used to it. Swearing that she'd finally try to get used to everything, she took in a deep breath, sat up straight, and took a glance at Asta, who was now eating very fast… and very sloppily. This, while also technically normal, would not stand.
"Stupidsta, could you maybe eat a bit slower? Your food is getting everywhere."
"Oh, okay," responded Asta, his voice muffled by all of the food in his mouth.
"Also don't talk while eating like that…", Noelle sighed, facepalming.
"Oh, sorry," responded Asta, his voice clear, as he swallowed his food before he spoke this time.
"Hahaha!" Vanessa laughed, "I swear, you're like his mom or something!"
Gauche chuckled at Vanessa's remark, a trace of a nosebleed appearing in his left nostril, "No, I'd say she's more like me when I'm with my little sister…"
"NO!...", responded Noelle almost immediately, seeming almost upset.
"Then what are you then?", inquired Vanessa with a smirk on her face.
Since Noelle went silent, Vanessa continued, "Would you have rather I said the other thing I thought? That you two were almost like lo…"
"NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!", Noelle screamed, face bright red, and with such vigour that Vanessa just had to laugh.
Asta stopped eating and looked up at Noelle, "Huh? Did ya eat somethin' spicy? Your face is as red as a tomato."
Everything went silent for a second, but then,
"AHHHHHH, STUPIDSTA!", Noelle yelled, blasting Asta with a water jet, which only made Vanessa laugh even harder.
At that point, the front door blasted open with a thud.
"Ah, Luck came back.", noted Charmy, who had been uninvolved in basically everything, as she had been eating. Magna ran to the door.
"Where the hell are my cool sunglasses?!"
Luck winked in response, "Those? I lost them."
"YOU WHAT?"
Magna took out his grimoire, and conjured himself a flaming baseball bat. Luck smiled, talking out his own grimoire in response, blue electricity starting to envelop his body.
They really looked as if they were about to fight… again… at least until Yami came into the room, finally finished with his bathroom business, with Finral right behind him.
"What the hell is happening here? Can I join?", Yami said, rendering the room silent as he also took out his grimoire, which developed a slithering, ominous black aura to match his equally terrifying expression.
"...Nothing, sir.", said Magna, putting away his grimoire, the flaming bat fading from his hand.
"Aww…", Luck said, frowning, as he also put away his grimoire, the blue electricity dying down. Yami took a glance at the group eating, and immediately noticed that Asta was drenched.
"And why the hell is the kid so wet… eh, I can guess. Magna, go dry him and also go dry his seat. Can't have Henry cleaning up too many of our messes."
"Uh… yes sir.", replied Magna as he ran to Asta to dry him out.
Yami sighed, put away his grimoire, and sat down at the bar with Finral right beside him. It wasn't long until the awkward silence between the two got to Yami.
"Finral, why are you even here? Go over and talk to the guys over there. I'll be over after I have this drink.", said Yami, grabbing a half empty wine bottle and pouring himself a glass.
Finral shrugged and replied, "Well, okay… wait-", he started whispering, "isn't that Vanessa's? She was talking to me about finally getting an amazing 25 year vintage, and I'm pretty sure that bottle says '25 years' on it."
"Oh. Uh. Captain's privilege, I guess.", replied Yami nervously.
"So I can tell her."
"No, I beg you, please don't."
Finral smirked, "Let's make a deal then. Let me off toilet paper duty for a month, and I won't tell her."
"A month?" Yami started to make a somewhat complicated expression.
"...okay, a week.", Finral corrected.
"Okay. Good. If it was a month, I would've gotten real mad. Ok, deal.", said Yami, with a face on that seemed a little bit too serious for the occasion.
"Yeah, deal.", replied Finral, a look of relief and accomplishment on his face. He had just gotten himself out of toilet paper duty and dodged a bullet at the same time.
"Well, I'll be over there, have fun drinking your wine!", Said Finral, dashing to the group eating, a smile plastered onto his face.
"Oh, Finral! What's got you in such a good mood?", asked Vanessa, noticing Finral's bright smile, "You're never like that after toilet paper duty- you're always all dejected, complaining and all that."
Finral beamed in response, "You see, the Captain took me off toilet paper duty for a week! A full week!"
Vanessa laughed, "A week? Just a week? You're that happy about being off duty for a week?"
"Hey, you do not know how hard toilet paper duty can be. All the shit Yami says to you… he's terrifying! Plus, he almost never lets me off!", Finral retorted. Vanessa considered that for a second and then asked, "Yeah, I guess you're right… but then what the hell did you do to make him let you off duty?"
Finral started sweating. Visibly. If there was one thing that could be said about Finral, it would be that he's sometimes a damn idiot.
"Oh… uh… Yami told me to not say anything about that as it would be really embarrassing… for him…", Finral replied, voice slightly shaking.
"Oh, okaaaay, that sucks…" Vanessa obviously wasn't buying it, but she didn't really care enough to ask further. She would probably figure it out at some point anyways. Finral was a terrible liar- terrible enough that even the most dense of people could see through his lies, let alone somebody as razor-sharp as Vanessa.
"Yeah, hahaha…", Finral said as he sat down. "Magna, how're the menial tasks going?"
"It's going fine, you… toilet paper dispenser.", Magna said, slightly dejected, the ball of mana in his hand glowing brighter.
Asta responded to this unwelcome adjustment, "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! Could ya turn that down a bit?"
"Oh, sorry…"
Finral chuckled. "If I'm a toilet paper dispenser, you're a glorified hair dryer, and not even a good one." Magna's ball of mana grew brighter again.
"Ok! So what if I'm a glorified hair dryer? AT LEAST I'M NOT THE ONE USED TO WIPE SOMEBODY'S ASS!", Magna yelled, his volume getting louder and louder every word.
"Ahhhh! Turn that down a bit, will ya?", Asta said, "Also, Finral, stop bullying Magna. Hair dryers are cool."
Magna nodded. "Yeah, that's right, hair dr- wait, did you just call me a hair dryer too?"
"Well, that's what you're doing now, isn't it?",
Magna was about to scream, but realized that this was just Asta being Asta.
"Huh, whatever…", said Magna with a resigned tone, continuing to dry Asta.
"Ahhh, this is awesome. Thanks Magna! Whatever Finral says, hair dryers are cool! I really respect you!", Asta said in a misguided attempt to get Magna's spirits up.
"Thanks… I guess…", Magna replied flatly. He couldn't get mad because he knew that Asta's feelings were completely genuine, but he also couldn't really be happy about the compliment either, for obvious reasons.
"Those guys really are entertaining, aren't they, Noelle.", said Vanessa, noticing that Noelle's gaze was firmly fixated on Asta.
"Y-yeah, I guess they are." Noelle replied shakily.
"Especially Asta, huh", teased Vanessa, smirking.
"N- no… well… maybe..."
"Do you maybe wanna talk about it?..." continued Vanessa, now smiling.
Noelle paused and thought about it for a second, "S-Sure… Yeah, let's do that."
Vanessa was genuinely surprised, "Oh? Really? Well, let's go upstairs then."
As Vanessa and Noelle stood up, the front door slammed open with a loud crack, rendering the entire room silent. There was nobody in the Bulls missing from the hideout, so who opened the door? Everybody's questions were answered as the visitor in question appeared in the doorway, the man muttering just three words,
"Oh, it worked."
He looked to be in his twenties, and was large, even larger than Yami, and somehow even more muscular. He wore a pitch black cloak that extended all the way to his shins, with a small silver insignia that nobody in the room recognized sewn onto his shoulder. He had a grimoire, encased so that nobody could see its cover attached to his hip, a black katana strapped to his back, and a small dagger attached to the hip opposite his grimoire. But by far his most visible features were his stark white hair and his sharp grass green eyes. However, the things that the people in the hideout noticed the most weren't visual at all, it was the apathy present in in the three words that he said in the doorway, and the deep, dark feeling of emptiness that followed behind him as he walked inside and sat down next to Asta.
Author's notes:
You know exactly who the visitor is lol