Ever since the night of the Star Festival, Gauche had been spending his days in heaven and his nights in hell.

Since that first kiss, he and Mariela had been inseparable… at least, as much as he was capable of making it so. Every moment that he wasn't working himself, he was at the library looking for answers… and every moment that she wasn't working herself, she was by his side. Mariela had yet to concede to looking into her own illness or curse on her own time—Owen was still making sure that that was what they studied when they spent the extra time they had at work looking, according to Mariela—but she'd also stopped fighting Gauche about his focus on her sickness. They had, almost immediately, come to the mutual conclusion that things would be better for everyone if they just kept things this way.

And, so far, it was working out perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that it was easy for Gauche to forget that they had a very real time limit… even if they didn't know exactly what it was. So, during the day, it was almost easy for him to separate himself from the reality of the situation, so long as she was by his side, her hand firmly placed in his own. At night, however, when it was just him…

… it was impossible to ignore the tightening in his chest whenever he thought of things.

"… che?"

Gauche jumped, nearly falling out of his seat, and looked at Gordon in mild agitation. The curse mage was still adamantly helping with the research, and even though Gauche wasn't the type to know how to say thank you, he wasn't so big a bastard that he was about to be mean to someone helping him for no reason… at least, he was trying to stop being the kind of person who was, anyway.

"What is it?" Gauche asked, eyeing his teammate. There was something… different. About the look on Gordon's face. "What's up?"

"… family… come home."

"You need to speak up," Gauche said testily, snapping the book in front of him shut. Mariela was still at work, but the two men had been at the library together for the last four hours or so, and it was probably a good time to take a bit of a break. "I can't hear you. What are you trying to say?"

Instead of repeating himself right away, Gordon held out a piece of paper in his hand in response. Gauche took it and scanned it over, realizing that it was a letter from the rest of Gordon's family. He could feel his chest tightening in anticipation as he skipped back to the top of the letter to read it another time through, this time more thoroughly. The further he got through it, the faster his eyes scanned, drinking every detail in and feeling greedy about it.

Why don't you come home, the letter ended, and bring her with you when you do.

This is it, he thought to himself desperately. This has to be it.

Standing up so quickly that he shoved the chair he was sitting on over in the process, Gauche reached out and grabbed Gordon's wrist. Yanking his friend out of his chair, he had already turned and started out of the library by the time he was saying over his shoulder, "Let's go grab her. We'll leave today."

x

Mariela shot up in her seat at the sudden pounding on the office door, immediately embarrassed by the fact that she'd apparently fallen asleep… again. It had been a month since the Star Festival, and while she'd been much, much happier—a thought that brought a bright blush to her cheeks if she dwelled on it for too long—she'd also been even more dedicated to her research, and sleep had been even harder to come by. She still wanted desperately to wake her brother, but suddenly, she also wanted desperately to not have to sacrifice the rest of her life to do so… suddenly, she wanted them both to survive, no matter what it took. And if a few sleepless nights were what it took, so be it.

… she was just lucky that Owen didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to be happy to be able to confirm with his own two eyes that she was actually fitting sleep into her schedule somehow, regardless of when. More than once in the past month, she'd woken to find Owen working next to her in the office, quietly getting things done so she could get as much of a nap as possible. The thought made her smile—if the past month had taught her anything, it had been even further lessons on how lucky she really, truly was, at the end of things. How lucky she'd been, regardless of the circumstances.

The knocking on the door got more and more insistent, drawing her out of her thoughts.

What on Earth… Mariela thought groggily to herself as she stumbled to her feet and over to the door. She was almost positive that it would be Mimosa on the other side of the door, finally there to let her know that Klaus had asked her to make things official. The idea brought a tired smile to Mariela's face. Against all odds, she had really, truly grown to care about her cousin. She wasn't ready to call it love… but she couldn't help but like Mimosa. The girl was just such a natural sweetheart, and had even been helping with the research when she'd had the spare time.

"Okay, okay!" Mariela called as the knocking got even louder. "Mimosa—" she started, but as soon as she twisted the knob, before she could even pull the door back, Gauche had basically fallen through.

"Can I help you?" she asked, laughing as she held him back by the shoulders to keep him from falling over and taking her down with him. She gave him a big smile, suddenly much more awake. "Is there a reason why you're so excited?" After a heartbeat of coming back to her senses from the nap she'd been accidentally taking, she asked quickly, "Did you find anything?"

Gauche shook his head and dashed any hope she might have had before even beginning to manifest it, but the smile on his face said there was more to it than just the simple no. "We haven't found anything yet," he started excitedly, "But we finally have a solid lead." Turning, Gauche grabbed Gordon and yanked the Black Bulls member forward. "Gordon finally heard back from his parents."

Mariela turned wide, hopeful eyes on the curse mage, who just smiled sheepishly back in response.

"Really?" she asked excitedly. "Did they have any idea what we should be looking into?"

"Yes," he confirmed quietly with a small nod and an even smaller smile. "Well, technically, no. But my father said that we should just come by the house, and he would take a look at you, if that's okay. We can go now, if you want and if that's okay."

Mariela hesitated, biting her lip. "I'm working—"

"No, you're not," a cheerful voice interrupted her from outside of the room, and Owen popped his head in to smile at her. "Excellent timing, I was coming back to see if you were wanting to get some lunch, anyway. Why don't you just call it a day, instead?"

Mariela beamed up at him brightly. "Are you sure it'll be okay?"

Owen laughed and nodded. "Yes, yes. I know you've been waiting for this response for a while now. Go, and make sure you let me know everything you find out as soon as you get back."

Owen clapped a hand on Gordon's back, almost sending the mage sprawling forward in surprise. "And tell your father I said hello. It's been a long time since I've seen him, but we went to school together back in the day."

Gordon, eyes wide, nodded up at the healing mage. "I'll be sure to do so," he said quietly.

Owen smiled and nodded again at Mariela. "Be sure that you're safe while you're out, but take as much time as you need. I'll see you when you get back, alright?" And, with that, he dipped out of the room and back up the hallway.

"Well?" Mariela turned a bright smile up to Gauche, who returned it and grabbed her hand. He nodded toward the door. "Let's go."

Mariela nodded, but stopped short before they had managed to leave the room. "Wait," she tugged on Gauche's hand, who looked down at her quizzically. "We were supposed to go see Marlin and Marie after lunch." She bit her lip, her brow wrinkling in contemplation. "We can go tomorrow—"

"No," Gauche cut her off immediately. The guilt written across his face clearly said that he hadn't forgotten about their original plans, but the determination he felt was written just as clearly. "I can see her next month."

"Do you really think Sister Theresa will make you wait another whole month before seeing Marie?" Mariela gasped, her eyes going wide. "Gauche, we really don't have to—"

"I don't want to wait on this," Gauche cut her off. His jaw was set and he nodded firmly toward the door. "We should go and see Gordon's family before we go and see Marlin, anyway, just in case we need anything from him. It'll be fine. I can wait another month to see my angel, it'll be okay."

His voice was sort of thick, and it made Mariela smile—he loved his sister so much, it was so heartwarming. The fact that he was willing to sacrifice seeing Marie for her…

"Thank you," she beamed up at him, and Gauche smiled down at her before leaning down and kissing her lightly.

"Let's go."

"… mind… please?"

Gauche jumped, his hand squeezing Mariela's and making her laugh. "What?" he snapped, looking over at Gordon. "Dammit, speak up, Gordon, I completely forgot you were there!"

Mariela was almost doubled over laughing at the bright red blush that had spread across Gauche's face. He had genuinely forgotten that there was another person in the room with them. She had grown to absolutely adore moments like these over the last month.

A blush had spread across Gordon's face as well, and he held both hands up in front of himself in steadfast apology. "Sorry," he whispered quickly. "I just… wanted to ask… can we maybe… bring… Grey?"

Mariela's laughter died down and she smiled warmly at Gordon. Grey had been spending the last couple of weeks coming to the library and helping them all research, and it made Mariela happy to see the two together. Grey really was such a sweetheart, and Mariela had felt a bit bad when she'd first met the girl… she was almost positive that she had feelings for Gauche, by the way she tended to watch him. When Mariela had first started working at the Bulls' headquarters, she couldn't help but notice… and feel a little bit jealous. Now that Grey was spending more time around Gordon, and judging by the way that she had started to cling to him now that she was spending more time in her true form, Mariela felt a little less guilty about the relationship she had with Gauche now.

"I would love that," Mariela gushed, grabbing Gordon's wrist and choosing to ignore the look on Gauche's face at that. She knew that he liked Grey and would gladly let her tag along—Grey was also extremely intelligent, and having her help with any research they might need was a good idea, anyway. But she'd figured out pretty quickly that he had a bit of a… possessive streak.

And, she couldn't help it—she found it a bit endearing, now that they were actually officially together.

Gordon didn't seem to notice anything amiss, however. A broad smile spreading across his face, he nodded enthusiastically. "Let's go!"

x

(so sorry that i've been mia for so long, now! i've had the worst case of writers/creators block and a ton of other things going on that have made writing just impossible. sorry for the palate cleanser chapter while i get back into the swing of things, too.)