Chapter Two: The Other Marie(la)

Captain Yami Sukehiro had lived through a lot of weird shit—from a single sea storm changing the entire trajectory of his life, to gaining magic as foreign and strange as he was on these lands, to having a giant child with the magical prowess of a damn near demigod recruit him to play alongside some of the boys and girls he used to shove into the dirt for looking at him sideways. In fact, the last few weeks had brought on some of the weirdest shit Yami had seen in a decent amount of time, even if he was just going off his time spent as the Black Bulls captain. And yet, somehow, some way… this was still the weirdest thing he'd seen in a long, long time.

"You wanna… maybe run that by me again?"

Gauche was looking as unfazed and vaguely disgruntled as usual, his wavy brown hair covering half his face and his visible eye as flat as his voice. The only real thing standing out about him, in fact, had nothing at all to do with him. It was, instead, the very pretty blonde girl with her eyes fixed firmly on the wooden floor in front of herself stranding next to him that had caught Yami's attention at first. What Gauche had said that followed, however, was what had really caught him off guard.

"You heard me," Gauche said flatly. "She needs a job, and she should be the new house maid."

"And why is any of that my problem?"

Yami had really only been trying to push Gauche a little to see just how much he'd push back. Yami had known there would be at least some push back; Gauche opening his mouth to say anything about something that wasn't his little sister was more than enough to let Yami know this must be important. What he hadn't expected was the look that flared through Gauche's eyes, or the fact that it was would die down immediately the second the woman put her hand on his forearm lightly.

"It really isn't, sir," her voice was soft, and her eyes still hadn't raised at all from the floor. In fact, her hands were back to being clasped in front of herself again; Yami was already questioning whether he'd actually seen her touch Gauche or not. "Thank you for your time regardless."

Yami's eyebrows shot up, and Gauche met his gaze with a peeved look. He was obviously trying to keep his mouth shut, and as much as Yami wanted to tease Gauche a little more, he was more curious about what exactly was going on. More importantly, he wanted to know how Gauche had found himself around such a polite person and how she'd put up with him, his biting personality, and his weird sister complex long enough to get to the hideout.

"What, did I say I wouldn't give you the job?" Yami almost felt bad for the flippancy in his tone as her head shot up, violet eyes wide and lips parted slightly in shock. He took a drag off his cigarette before blowing it out slowly and crossing his arms. "What I asked was why any of it was my problem. Why the hell do I care if we have a new housemaid? I'm not the housemaid we have now, am I?"

Gauche snorted, saving the woman from having to figure out an answer. "It's your problem because, unlike Asta, she's not a Magic Knight. If she wants to get paid, you're the guy to talk to. So give her the job and tell me where to take her, she needs a place to stay, too."

Yami balked, his cigarette falling out of his mouth at that. "You're the last one I figured would want a live-in girlfriend, Gauche."

"What?" Both Gauche and the woman he was with said it at the same time, but Yami couldn't help but notice the difference in tones: while Gauche almost sounded embarrassed, she sounded… angry. Her eyes were focused on Gauche, her formerly pale face going pink and her body language the exact opposite of the timid way she'd held herself before.

"Is that why I'm here?" Her voice was still soft, but now it sounded strained, like that was more a decision than a mannerism. "If that's the case, I really do need to be going before it gets any darker out, it will be hard enough finding my way out of this area as it is."

Gauche, obviously flustered, said immediately, "No, please—"

"I won't tell your sister anything," she cut him off, turning firmly back to look at Yami. "Thank you, again, very much for your time, sir. I appreciate you hearing this request at all, I was unaware of exactly what it would mean."

Gauche looked at Yami, face pale. "Fix it!" He almost shouted, and it was enough to shake Yami out of the trance he'd let himself fall into on accident—not that it did much, as Yami immediately started chortling with laughter. "Fix this, you bastard!"

Yami could barely hold himself up; he was doubled over, laughing too hard to see straight. "Alright, alright," he finally choked out. He'd managed to get himself under some semblance of control right as their future housemaid was on her way out the front door. "Come back, come back, I was kidding! Gauche is in love with his sister, there's no way anyone would ever think he had a girlfriend, live-in or not."

Gauche's face went bright red, but he said nothing, instead choosing to glare daggers at Yami.

"Is that… true?"

Gauche's head snapped back to look at the woman who, voice back to being timid, had turned and was standing hesitantly just to the side of the hideout entrance. "Yes. I mean. No. Yes. I mean…" Flustered, he chose instead to go back to glaring at Yami. "Is she getting the job or not?"

"Well, I mean, what's her name?"

"Marie," Gauche said at the exact same time she said, "Mariela."

Yami couldn't have rolled his eyes harder if he'd tried. "You mean to tell me the pretty blonde with the purple eyes is named Marie, and you want her here?" When he looked at her again, though, Yami actually put the effort into seeing past those things. She was pretty, that was undeniable—her old dress, obviously patched and altered at least a few times, was decidedly not very pretty however, and neither were the ash smudges that had made her skin look even paler than it was. Her eyes, striking as they were, were also rimmed in red and the skin around them was bruised with sleeplessness and fatigue. For someone who looked to be just about Vanessa's height, Mariela was thin and even though her dress had been altered it was still a bit too big, the slight hollow to her cheeks confirming that she was thinner than she should be. Regardless of how Gauche knew her, she very clearly did need both a place to stay and a job, and it didn't take Yami a lot of effort to figure out why she was having such a hard time finding either in a city like this one.

"Go talk to Finral," Yami said finally, turning and waving a hand over his shoulder dismissively. "You know he does the paper stuff; I don't know how any of that works. There should be an empty room somewhere in here. As long as it's got a bed, it's up for grabs." Directing his attention to Mariela without turning to look at her, Yami added, "I like you, kid. It was nice meetin' ya'. If you need anything, let someone know. No one here's as scary as they look, and they're definitely not as bad as what I'm pretty sure you've been dealing with your whole life."

Gauche and Mariela were standing awkwardly in a little room on the top floor of the hideout; Gauche hadn't wanted her to have to stay all the way up here, but Mariela had insisted that she be separated from the Magic Knights because she wasn't one. Now that they'd gotten to the room, however, Gauche was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that he was supposed to be leaving… and he didn't really want to, after spending the entire day with her. Mariela hadn't seemed to notice any of it, however; she was looking at him sheepishly.

"I'm very sorry for snapping at you earlier," she said quietly, dropping her eyes to stare back at the ground. With what appeared to be genuine effort, Mariela brought her eyes up again to meet Gauche's, and for the millionth time that day he thought about how hypnotizing those eyes were. Almost as beautiful as his…

Gauche coughed into his hand awkwardly to disrupt the thought, horrified at what he'd almost admitted to himself. "You don't have anything to apologize for," he said gruffly, "Yami's an asshole."

Mariela laughed, and the sound made Gauche smile. When he realized that, he immediately turned to walk out the door and hide his pinkening face. "I'm, uhh, gonna go grab Finral. He's the one that's going to know how to actually make this a real job and not just a place that you sleep and clean up after a bunch of idiots."

"Gauche?"

Gauche stopped in the doorway and turned just slightly to look back at Mariela, keeping the side of his face that wasn't covered by hair carefully angled away from her. "Yeah?"

"Thank you. You've… you've done so much for me today, for no reason. Between you and your sister, I don't... no one has ever been this kind to us, I think, and I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough."

Gauche was unsure of what to say to that but knew that what she was saying made him feel… unhappy, for some reason. So, he left without another word.

"Hello, gorgeous," a voice said from behind Mariela, making her scream and scramble to turn to see who had appeared out of nowhere in the space she had thought a wall was. A man with wavy brown hair and a handsome smile was stepping out of a spatial magic portal, a stack of papers held in one hand and a rose in the other. He held the rose out to her with a laugh and an apology for having scared her so badly.

"I…" Mariela took the rose in confusion, still flustered and uncomfortable at the sudden appearance of a man in her room. "I'm so sorry, who are you?"

"I'm Finral," he said with another charming smile. "I'm the welcome committee for the newbies here, especially when they're pretty women."

Mariela took an awkward step back, her legs bumping into the bed behind her. The room was very small and the bed took up a decent amount of the floor, but she wanted as much space between herself and the man—Finral—who had just appeared and was already making her uncomfortable. As soon as Finral seemed to notice, however, he took a step back and held his hands up in front of himself. Suddenly looking rather contrite, he added, "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry, I'm a spatial magic user obviously and most everyone here is used to my portals. I'll be sure to knock the next time I want to come in."

"You're damn right you will."

Mariela and Finral both turned to look at Gauche, who was standing in the doorway, his breathing labored enough to let everyone know he'd raced up the stairs to get to the room. The look in his eye was vicious. "I didn't think you were going to portal yourself away to harass a woman alone in her room."

Finral's face actually dropped at that, and Mariela couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Finral had scared her, sure, but he obviously wasn't actually scary himself. When he turned back to her with his mouth open, obviously about to apologize again, Mariela shook her head immediately with a smile that she hoped let him know that she didn't think he had anything to feel sorry about.

"No, no, I'm sorry for screaming like that. You just caught me off guard, I promise, you haven't done anything wrong."

Finral smiled back at her but looked away awkwardly as Gauche walked up to stand next to Mariela with his arms crossed. "Anyway, creep, you're here to get her all set up as the new house maid, aren't you?"

Finral laughed uncomfortably and rubbed at the back of his neck with the hand not holding the papers for Mariela. "I am still your superior, you know."

Gauche snorted at that, and Finral apparently chose to ignore it, turning back to smile again at Mariela kindly while he held the papers out. "Just fill these out the best you can. Don't worry about anything that isn't relevant or anything; we're not really what you would call organized around here, but I'll make sure you're getting paid if your name is on those, at least."

"Thanks, creep," Gauche interjected, grabbing the papers before Mariela could take them and handing them to her himself. "You can go now."

She had to smother a smile at that; Gauche was such an overprotective brother that she was positive he had taken her under his wing because she had so much in common with the little sister he loved so much. God help the person who tried to so much as glance at Marie once she was more grown.

Finral seemed to hesitate for a second, so Mariela held her hand out and smiled warmly at him. "Thank you for your help. It was a pleasure to meet you, Finral."

Finral took her hand briefly before, with a glance at Gauche, he said farewell and portaled himself out of the room. As soon as he was gone, Mariela started laughing and turned to look at Gauche.

"You're going to terrify anyone who so much as looks at Marie, aren't you?"

Gauche looked at her in surprise before quickly blinking and nodding. "Um, yeah. Of course, anyone who tries to come near my precious, darling little angel is going to leave with holes in them if I have anything to say about it."

Mariela beamed up at Gauche, who looked away when his face started to pinken. Gauche had done so much for her—too much for her—all because he saw his little sister in her, and he was still so embarrassed about how much he absolutely adored the little girl. Mariela touched his arm lightly but pulled back when he jumped. "I'm sorry," she said immediately, "I just wanted to say that I think how much you love your little sister is just. Amazing. I'm extremely lucky, and very grateful, to be able to take any sort of good will from that. I already knew that you were a very lucky older brother to have such a sweetheart for a little sister, and now I know that she's just as lucky to have you. Thank you. Truly."

Gauche looked at her again, a startled look on his face that devolved into a more… pinkened and embarrassed look. Gauche nodded before turning to leave the room. Before he turned to disappear down the hall, he looked at Mariela one more time. "I…" Gauche cleared his throat and tried again, "I'm glad someone noticed." And, with that, he disappeared down the hall.

In the stillness, Mariela looked around herself with a soft smile on her face. When tears started to gather in her eyes, she dropped down to the neat little bed and let them roll down her cheeks. They were the first happy tears she'd cried in a long, long time. She pushed her dress sleeve up to pull a small piece of paper out of one of the leather cuffs she wore on her wrists and unfolded it over and over again until the battered photo of a little boy came into view. His sandy blonde hair was messy and wind tossed, and his wide smile, missing the two front teeth, shone from a freckled face. The smile made his eyes almost disappear, but Mariela knew that they were a deep jade green, the kind of green that could make a person feel soft moss under their feet and smell wet pine in the air.

"I love you, Marlin," she whispered quietly, gasping a little and hurriedly wiping the tears from her face when a single drop of water fell onto the boy's smiling face. "I love you so much, and I'm going to save you."

"So what was that?" Vanessa came up behind Yami, a bottle dangling from one hand. Gorgeous and blasted as always, Vanessa gave Yami a saucy smile and a wink. "Think maybe our little Gauche is growing out of his sister complex?"

Yami snorted. "With a girl that looks like that, named Marie, polite as a proper noble-born lady? Nah, I don't think this is any sort of sign that he's abandoning his weird sister thing any time soon."

"I mean," Vanessa laughed and took a swig from her bottle before holding it out to offer to her Captain. Yami stared at it for a second before shrugging and taking it to take a swig himself. As he did, Vanessa continued, "She's an adult and she's not related to him… I think. That's a good sign, ain't it?"

Yami handed the bottle back with a shrug. "Who knows. Either way, I didn't give her the okay so she could cure Gauche's weirdness, I did it because she needed it. So I'm not holding her to the impossible task of making him act like a normal brother. As long as she can do laundry, cook, and clean, I don't really care what happens."

Vanessa's smile softened as she studied Yami with genuine fondness. "Always saving the lost girls, huh, Yami?"

Yami grunted, pulling out a new cigarette before dropping back down to the couch to light it. "At least this one didn't come with a crazy witch trying to kill me for getting lost."

Vanessa laughed and took another swig from her bottle, this time emptying it. As she walked away to grab another one, she called over her shoulder, "No, she just came with the kind of look in her eyes that reminded you of some stuff, huh, Captain?"

Yami took a long drag off his cigarette. As he pulled the smoke down his lungs, he thought of every judgmental kid on the capital city's streets who'd taught him how to throw a punch and take one for no reason other than being a foreigner, of how it felt to live in trees and off fish that he caught because no one would give him any form of work, even after he'd gotten his own grimoire and proven that the land's magic recognized him… even if the people here didn't want it to, and wouldn't extend him the same acceptance. As he breathed out the burning in his chest with a steady stream of smoke, Yami thought of Julius running up to him and looking at him with something other than disgust, how it felt to put on the Magic Knight robes for the first time, the way he suddenly wasn't alone, anymore, whether that was what he wanted or not.

"Bring me back a bottle, too, would you?" Yami called to Vanessa's retreating back, taking another drag off his cigarette and leaning his head back to breath the smoke out with a long, heavy sigh.