I do not own Black Clover or any of its characters.

Stressed

"Are you sure?" Yami asked.

"One hundred percent," Dane nodded. "It's him. I can't explain the scar, but it's definitely him. My impulses were deafening."

"Well, you hid that well," Yami said. "What was with the offer to help with his scar?"

Dane considered. "Because if my impulses were wrong, if it really isn't him, then I understand the kind of life his scars forced him to live, and I want to help. Because despite my impulses, I don't want to be cruel, or violent, or selfish. I want to be a good person. And maybe...if I prove my magic can do more than destroy..."

"Maybe you'll redeem yourself in your own eyes," Yami finished. "Your impulses, dangerous though they are, are impressive. I think your impulses are something different than just having murderous tendencies. I think it's an instinctive ability to read ki that you can't do on command, maybe mixed with the same mana sensing ability your mother got from her Spirit Magic."

"You think?" Dane asked.

"It would explain why they warn you when there's something dangerous or someone hostile around you," Yami said. "And you already know you have the sensing ability. It'd make sense."

Dane nodded. "We should get back to the food party."

"Yeah," Yami nodded. "Hard to believe we actually finally got a few gold stars."

"No kidding," Dane nodded. "Granted, we definitely earned it." He frowned. "Why didn't that guy you took Asta to heal his arms?"

"I'm not sure," Yami admitted. "You think you could?"

"If he'd let me, yeah," Dane nodded. "Maybe. Depends on how much bone there is for me to work with without having to have fresh human bones to draw from to make up the difference."

Yami nodded, and they headed outside.

"Asta's arms...they're never going to recover," Finral was saying as they stepped outside.

"What the fuck did we just walk in on?" Dane asked.

Finral glanced over at them. "It's something I overheard from that guy that was supposed to heal his arms. He said that Asta's arms were hit with some kind of ancient Hex Magic, and that the bones of his arms have basically disintegrated."

"A curse, huh?" Yami asked. "Well, Dane?"

"No," Dane shook his head. "Even my magic can't circumvent a curse."

"Shit," Yami sighed. "If the best Recovery Mage in the kingdom says that's what happened, it's most likely true."

"It can't be!" Noelle gasped.

"I thought I'd found somebody I could fight with!" Finral muttered through gritted teeth.

"No, I can't believe it!" Magna breathed.

"He has no magic and now..." Vanessa shook her head slowly. "Now he can't even use his only weapon anymore."

"Oh, no," Grey whimpered. "So sad."

Everyone remained silent, letting the shock set in slowly. Finally, Dane took a slow breath.

"If...If I took from someone else..." Dane voiced his theory slowly. "I...I might be able to...replace his arms entirely."

"Then let's go find a body!" Luck said.

Dane shook his head. "This is...it's different than when I replaced my own arms. I was only changing my prosthetics that I was already controlling with my magic into flesh. For his...especially with the curse, I'd have to replace his arms entirely. I'd have to remove his, then transform someone else's into replicas. And in order to do that, it would take...a long time of work. Long enough that the body would start to decompose. The...the person I take from would have to be alive. I'd be torturing someone as I take their arms off one molecule at a time. They'd be begging for death before I finished a single bone."

"Well..." Luck swallowed hard. "Could you use and animal?"

Dane shook his head. "In theory, but that would take...so much longer, because I'd have to take individual molecules and pair them together as needed in order to change animal flesh and bones into human ones. And the whole time, I'd be trying to keep both of them from bleeding to death, and trying to keep the pain itself from making their bodies shut down."

"That could happen?" Magna asked.

"Yes," Dane nodded. "There's a level of pain that can kill you simply because your body shuts down to make it stop."

Everyone stared at the ground again, and Dane could see that the option of him creating new arms was thrown away by all of them. He was glad. He didn't want to do it. He would, for Asta, but he'd hate himself for it. Slowly, everyone but Dane began to follow Asta as he snuck out of a window in the hideout and went off on his own. As they did, Dane sat down, thinking. He wanted to make another option. A prosthetic that Asta could use. Could actually control. It would be one thing if Asta had magic, but without it, it would be difficult, at best. After thirty minutes of him failing to think of anything that would be suitable for Asta, he stopped as he heard Asta shouting about not giving up. He sighed, staring at the ground. This time, Dane differed from Asta. He was giving up. Asta's arms couldn't be saved, so he had to make Asta new arms. He had to find a way to make something that would work without mana, or else Asta's swords would leave them worthless again the moment he touched his swords.

"Dane," Vanessa said, walking over and sitting beside him. "Can we talk?"

"Of course," Dane nodded. "What's up?"

"I might know a place that has magic that can heal Asta's arms," Vanessa began.

"Really?" Dane asked. "You think it's possible?" He looked down at the worthless prosthetics and pieces of them he'd made.

"Maybe," Vanessa said. "I can't be sure, but maybe."

"Alright," Dane nodded. "Where is it?"

"My former home," Vanessa said, "The Witch's Forest."

"That's the independent nation between us and the Diamond Kingdom, right?" Dane asked.

"Yes," Vanessa nodded. "It's...not a pleasant memory there."

"What happened?" Dane asked.

"I was locked in a cage by the Witch Queen," Vanessa said. "She wanted to use my Thread Magic for her own benefit, so she locked me away from the world for most of my life. I was in that cage until Yami accidentally broke into my cage when he invaded the forest and saved me."

Dane nodded. "I'll go with you. I won't let the Witch Queen touch you."

Vanessa smiled, nodding and taking his hand. "Thank you. You're...the first person I've ever told about that."

Dane frowned. "Why tell me?"

Vanessa smiled, kissing him, but unlike every other time, where it was always hungry and meant to tease him or to urge him to have sex with her, this time the kiss was tender, slow and gentle. It was the kind of kiss that someone gave the person they loved. Dane instantly felt his stomach twist into hauntingly familiar knots. After a few seconds, she pulled back, and Dane swallowed hard.

"Vanessa..." Dane rasped.

"If you try to leave, Charmy and I will just track you down and bring you back," Vanessa warned. "We're not letting you go that easy."

Dane grit his teeth, taking a shaky breath and nodding. "Are we going tomorrow?"

Vanessa nodded. "It'll be just you and me, this time."

Dane nodded, and Vanessa kissed him again, just as lovingly as the last, before standing and taking his hand. Dane followed her willingly, feeling his stomach twist into knots again, but despite his expectation that Vanessa wanted sex, she merely climbed into bed with him and curled into his side. And a few minutes later, Charmy had joined them in her adult form, curling into his free side.

"I can't believe Asta's still not giving up," Charmy said. "He's...so stubborn."

"Yeah," Dane nodded. "We have to find a way to help him."

Charmy nodded. "He'll be okay, won't he?"

Dane was silent for a few moments before nodding. "He'll be okay. We'll find a way."

Charmy nodded, kissing him, and Dane returned it in kind, his stomach once again twisting into knots. After a few moments, she set her head on his shoulder and she and Vanessa quickly began to drift off. Dane couldn't. He tried, desperately, but even with his mind silent, his stomach continuously churned with anxiety, keeping him wide awake all the way to when Vanessa and Charmy woke up.

"You didn't sleep at all, did you?" Vanessa asked knowingly.

"A little," Dane lied. "Come on. We should get cleaned up before we head out."

They both nodded, Charmy shifting into her adult form long enough to kiss him before leaving. Vanessa kissed him also, but after she pulled back, she sat back and cupped his face, making him look at her.

"Dane, you're not going to hurt us, and we're not going to hurt you," Vanessa said firmly. "I know that our feelings for you scare you, but we're not letting you leave us."

Dane sighed heavily, resting his forehead against hers. "Please, Vanessa. Let's just focus on helping Asta. After that..."

"After that, what?" Vanessa asked. "You'll be ready to accept our feelings?"

"After that, we can worry about my trauma," Dane said. "I'm trying my best, but I need you to understand that you can't press the issue too much, or you'll break me."

Vanessa sighed, kissing him, then nodding. "Okay. Let's get cleaned up and go to the Forest."

Dane nodded, and they both went to get cleaned up. Once Dane was done, and had gotten himself dressed, he sat on the foot of his bed, staring at the floor as his anxiety crushed his stomach. Raya appeared in front of him, kneeling and taking his hands.

"Hey," Raya said, her face filled with sympathy. "It's going to be okay, Dane."

"I can't take this, Raya," Dane said, eyes watering finally. "I can't take this. I can't handle this. They both genuinely care about me...Charmy's in love with me...and it...terrifies me!"

Raya pulled him into a hug gently. "It's going to be okay. It's okay. I know it scares you, but I know how strong you are. You can do this. It's going to be scary, and sometimes, it might hurt, but you can do this."

"No, I can't!" Dane said, pushing her away, though not roughly. "It was a mistake to come here! It was a mistake to let them get close!"

"No, Dane, it wasn't," Raya said. "This didn't happen by accident. Whether you realize it or not, you let them close because you wanted to. Because you want to not feel alone. You've felt alone your entire life, so you want companionship, but it also scares you to let people close. It's going to hurt to let them in, but you have to."

"I can't!" Dane cried, Raya hugging him again.

"Dane, you've already started to," Raya said gently. "That's why it scares you so bad. You can do this. You can let them in."

"But..." Dane grit his teeth, swallowing.

"Dane, let me ask you something," Raya said. "If you left...If you just ran away and never saw them again, do you think that you could handle it? Do you think you'd be okay with never seeing them again?"

Dane broke down, sobbing into Raya's chest as she held him.

"You can do this," Raya said. "It'll hurt, but I'll be right here for you. And so will they. Be honest with them both. You can do this."

She continued to hold Dane for nearly another twenty minutes as Dane cried before he finally managed to settle and thanked her. She vanished in a flash of light and he blew his nose and washed his face before walking out of the hideout, seeing Vanessa and Charmy waiting. At a glance, both of them seemed to realize what was wrong, because Charmy immediately aged to her adult form as both gained a worried expression.

"Are you...are we okay?" Charmy asked.

Dane stopped, swallowing hard as he realized how she viewed them. "After we finish helping Asta...I...I need some time to think...and then we need to talk after that."

Both girls nodded, and he walked over to them, hugging them both. They both held him for a few minutes before they released him and Charmy walked over to where Finral was waiting to form her a portal, Grey waiting to go with Charmy while disguised as a second Charmy.

"You ready?" Vanessa asked, mounting her broom.

"Yeah," Dane nodded, mounting his own. "Time for you to finally take me home."

Vanessa laughed, but as they flew, the mood quickly grew sour, and Dane could see Vanessa growing nervous. He flew up beside her, taking her hand.

"Hey," he said. "It's going to be okay. We can do this."

"They're not going to like having you there," Vanessa warned him.

"They'll get over it," Dane assured her. "It's going to be okay."

Vanessa smiled. "Yes, it is."

Dane sucked in a breath as he realized she meant his own anxiety, and he sighed, shaking his head. "We'll see."

Vanessa nodded, and they fell silent as they flew.

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