"So, what's going on with you and Gauche?"

Mariela looked up at Vanessa over the edge of her tankard, startled. "What?"

She'd spent the day in town with Vanessa and Noelle and it had been amazing; after going to the black market, they'd all gone to a bar to get some drinks and food. Lately, life had felt so amazing that Mariela would sometimes panic, anxiety choking her at the idea that this was all just the prelude to something awful—the calm before the storm. The low buzz of anxiety that she'd felt under everything ever since that terrible night back in her old village would roar to life out of nowhere, and suddenly she was also drowning in guilt at the fact that she was enjoying her life while Marlin was still trapped somewhere between life and death. But, guilty or not… she couldn't make herself stop enjoying the Black Bulls.

Vanessa gave Mariela a sly smile and a wink before pouring herself another glass of wine; the waitress had just left the bottle at the table when she'd served them. "You know what I mean."

Mariela looked into her cup, her cheeks heating as she realized just what Vanessa was asking her. "We're just friends," she said quietly.

Vanessa chuckled. After taking a deep drink from her glass, she clucked her tongue and waited to speak until Mariela looked up to meet her eyes. When she finally did, the pink-haired witch said kindly, "The fact that you think Gauche has friends the same way other people have friends lets me know that you are as special as I thought you were. I'll assume you know about his frankly disturbing sister complex?"

Mariela laughed at that, waving her hand dismissively. "How much we love our siblings is actually the one thing we probably have in common. I don't think it's disturbing at all."

Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "Out of curiosity, do you get nosebleeds when you look at pictures of your little brother?"

Mariela's eyes widened in surprise as she answered, "No. I can't say that I ever have."

Nodding sagely, Vanessa concluded, "Then that's all I really needed to know. But, if you're not interested in Gauche…" Vanessa shot Mariela another sly look. "Is that why you've been spending so much time with Asta?"

A loud clattering sound made Vanessa and Mariela both jump and look over at Noelle, who had just broken the plate in front of her. "Are you okay?" Mariela asked, standing and reaching across the table to start grabbing pieces of the ceramic plate. Laying her cloth napkin neatly in front of her on the table, Mariela started to stack the pieces carefully on it. When she was done, she carefully wrapped the entire thing up; before she could move to do anything else, Vanessa used her magic to wrap the little bundle tightly up.

"I…" Noelle trailed off, voice weak. She hadn't looked up from her lap since she'd broken the plate. Clearing her throat in the sudden silence, however, her head finally came up, her nose slightly in the air as she looked firmly off to the side to avoid having to meet either of the other women's eyes. "I think these plates are defective. That must be it."

"Uh-huh." Vanessa's tone was about as flat and unconvinced as the look on her face, but Mariela just smiled and laughed as she set the wrapped napkin next to her cup.

"Anyway," Noelle stressed, finally looking back at them with cheeks that were still vaguely tinged with pink. "We were talking about Mariela and Asta."

"Yes, we were," Vanessa turned back to look at Mariela, that sly smile firmly back in place. "So?"

Mariela, suddenly put back on the spot, just shook her hands in front her herself while she said quickly, "We're just friends, that's really all." When she'd calmed down a little, she put her hands down and her face softened into a smile. "He actually reminds me a little of Marlin, my little brother."

"Your… brother?" Noelle asked haltingly. Her cheeks were still flushed as she asked, her words coming out more quickly, "So you're only spending all this time around him because he reminds you of your brother?"

Mariela laughed awkwardly. "I suppose it probably sounds kind of weird. I don't mean that I think he's a child or that he's immature or anything like that; I just mean that his attitude reminds me a lot of Marlin's. I used to compare my little brother to the sun because he could light up just about anywhere that was lucky enough to have him." Mariela's smile suddenly turned a sad smile, the energy in her seeming to drain out through her shoes. "I like to think that wherever he is now, he brought his sunshine with him."

"That's so sweet," Vanessa's face was starting to flush a deeper pink as she polished off the last of the wine, leaving the empty bottle on the edge of the table to signal for another one. Despite that, when she looked at Mariela, her eyes were clear and kind. "If you can't have your brother with you now, I'm very happy we have something to keep you company until then."

"Don't know why you would ever want that," Noelle interjected, brushing her long silver hair over one shoulder elegantly. "There's no way your little brother could possibly be as annoying as that muscle-headed dork."

Mariela laughed at that; she hadn't known Noelle long, but she liked her a lot. She clearly wouldn't take the compliment well as things stood right now, but Mariela already thought that Noelle and Asta would be an adorable couple; hopefully Noelle accepted that soon, too. "Well, anyway, yes. I think that's why I spend so much time bothering him." That last part Mariela said with a laugh, but Vanessa met it with a frown.

"You've been doing that all day," she noted, pouring herself another glass of wine and taking another deep drink before continuing. "You insult yourself while laughing."

Mariela blushed and laughed nervously. Suddenly, she was on guard again; like a cornered rabbit, she could feel herself melting in on herself and trying to disappear. Before she had to figure out what to say to that, however, Vanessa had reached out and grabbed Mariela's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze.

"You'll figure it out," the beautiful witch said with a kind smile. "It might take a second… but now that you've found the Black Bulls, I doubt it'll take very long."

Noelle nodded her agreement silently before looking at Mariela pointedly. "So, if Asta reminds you of your brother… who's Gauche?"

Mariela's cheeks flushed immediately—though, after all the talk about Asta, she supposed it really was only fair. With an awkward chuckle, she answered, "He's, umm, probably just himself. I don't think I have anyone in my life to compare Gauche to, either in my past or now."

Vanessa laughed. "I don't think anyone out there is comparable to Gauche."

Mariela smiled shyly at that despite herself. When Vanessa and Noelle caught it, they exchanged a look and small smiles of their own. "Well," Noelle started, "Does that mean you'd want him to be anything else?"

Mariela looked up and tipped her head to the side, genuine confusion in her violet eyes. "What else would I want him to be?"

Noelle and Vanessa looked at each other with conspiratorial smiles.

"What else indeed," Vanessa mused, swirling the deep red wine in her glass before emptying it in one smooth gulp.

x

Gauche was having a terrible day.

The mission itself had been easy enough. With Finral, the trip to the bandit-riddled town was basically nonexistent and the bandits themselves had barely been a warmup between him and Asta. As much as he hated to admit it—and, lately, Gauche hated giving Asta any kind of credit—working with the annoying kid was easy and effective. Which should have meant that he could get back to the hideout quickly to continue painting his latest Marie doll… and, maybe, check on a different Marie, too.

The thought of Mariela set Gauche immediately on edge. It was weird—when she was around, she had a calming effect on him that was almost surreal. Gauche couldn't even help it; there was just something about her that calmed him down. The woman was probably using magic to accomplish the feat. Away from her, however, the thought of her made him… Gauche only had the feeling he felt when he was separated from his sweet Marie to compare it to. A fact that bothered him for several reasons, all of them incredibly annoying—and not things that he wanted to think about while sitting in a damn tavern with these idiots, something they knew damn well he didn't want to be doing.

"Gauche?"

Gauche jolted in his seat, sitting up straighter and casting a compulsive glare at Finral. "What?"

Finral, eyes widening, leaned back in his seat and held his hands up in front of himself. "I was just seeing if you were alright; you're zoning out so badly over there that I don't think you realized our food came."

Gauche looked down at the table in front of him; sure enough, his stew had appeared at some point. Instead of moving to start to eat, Gauche scowled down at the bowl.

He should have been back at the base, but he wasn't, and it was all because Finral was a goddamn pack mule and he'd dragged them all into his problem.

As soon as they'd gotten back to the hideout, Yami had grabbed Finral and let him know that there was a deal going on down at a new restaurant in town—half off… if it was a party of at least four. Which was the reason why, despite his many, many protests, Gauche had been dragged along.

"Still throwing a tantrum about having to come out to eat with your squadmates?" Yami called over from across the table, making Gauche turn his scowl up to his captain. Yami just looked back at him with a blank face and a raised eyebrow. "Is that a yes?"

"I just want to get back to Marie," Gauche groused, turning his scowl back down to the food he hadn't wanted.

"Are you sure about that?"

Gauche snapped his head up at that to look at Yami, all his irritation momentarily replaced by confusion. "Of course I am. What does that even mean?"

Yami shrugged, taking a drink of ale before lighting himself another cigarette. "I just haven't seen you look at her picture once since we got here."

Gauche froze. Yami was right—he hadn't looked at a picture of his angel once since he'd gotten to the restaurant.

"I don't remember you looking at her picture at all while we were on our mission, either," Asta added, thinking out loud in between shoveling spoonfuls of chicken and rice into his mouth.

Gauche started to grind his teeth at that. There was no way that was right… right?

"Unless," Yami said over the rim of his tankard after taking a deep drink. "You're talking about a different Marie."

"No idea what you're talking about," Gauche mumbled, going back to glaring at the slowly cooling bowl of stew on the table in front of him.

"Do you mean Mariela?" Asta asked as he pushed his plate away, totally wiped clean. After wiping his face, Asta looked at Gauche with a big smile. "She's awesome, right?"

Gauche narrowed his eyes, only stopping himself from frying Asta because of the look Yami gave him.

"Do you… have to call her Marie?" Finral asked uneasily.

"I'll call her whatever the hell I want," Gauche snapped, making Finral jump and Yami roll his eyes.

"So, are you going to talk about it or just glare at your food and be irritating all night?" Yami asked, staring Gauche down. "Because you're staying here until I'm ready to leave and we can get the tab so the discount actually gets added on. I don't really care which one you pick."

Asta looked at Gauche with a smile that made him want to throttle the kid. "You like her, too, right Gauche?"

"I don't care about anyone but Marie," Gauche snapped, surprising even himself just a bit with the venom in it. Yami snorted, then turned his attention to Asta.

"Alright, well, it's probably a good thing you think so, huh, Asta? The two of you have been spending the last couple mornings together, right?"

Asta laughed and waved the sentiment off, but stopped abruptly when he caught the look on Gauche's face—one that promised violence. "I've just been teaching her how to clean," Asta said with a shrug. "She's the new maid and I did the cleaning, remember?"

"Seeing as you don't need to anymore, stay the hell away from her." The words were out of Gauche's mouth before he could really think about it, and the second he realized what he'd said, he wished he could take it back. In an attempt to backtrack, he said immediately, "I don't mean—"

"Hey, hey," Asta cut him off, eyes wide. "It's not like I, like. Like her or anything like that. I keep telling you guys, my heart belongs to—"

"And what if he was into her?" Yami said abruptly, interrupting Asta to look at Gauche, who glared back. "Why do you care where she spends her time?"

"I don't," Gauche said immediately. Defensively, he knew. Yami seemed to know it, too, because he snorted in response.

"I actually think she might kinda like you," Asta said into the awkward silence that followed the standoff. Immediately, Gauche turned to glare at him, a look of fire in his eyes.

"I just said I don't care who the hell she likes," Gauche snapped, making Asta frown and shrug.

"Alright, I won't mention it. I just thought—"

"You thought wrong."

The table sat in an awkward silence for a moment that ended when Yami chuckled under his breath. He downed the last of his drink before standing. "Well, I'm gonna get another drink. Finral, the bar's downstairs; you know the drill."

Finral stood immediately, for once not looking put off by being relegated to a chauffeur. "You got it," he said immediately, making a portal and giving Yami a harried smile. "Let's go."

Yami didn't move right away; instead, he took a drag off his cigarette and looked at Asta. "Keep him out of trouble until I get back." And, with that, he disappeared through the portal with Finral close on his heels.

Gauche narrowed his eye on Asta; he wasn't sure what had just happened, but he knew that it couldn't be good. "What did he mean?"

Asta looked just as bewildered as Gauche was, a fact that he should have anticipated; the meathead was not a meathead because he was good at picking up subtext. "I don't—hey, look, it's the girls!"

Gauche felt the drop in his stomach even before he turned in his seat to look at the table that Asta was waving at. At first, he didn't understand—the only table occupied in the direction that Asta was looking at had only men at it, and none that he recognized. Then, with a jolt, he realized that the men he saw initially weren't at the table—they were surrounding it. No, the people sitting at the table were a laughing Vanessa, a glaring Noelle, and a blushing Mariela.

Gauche didn't even bother to get to his feet; the telltale flash of mirrors glinted through the air a split second before magic started refracting off them, first blowing the cup in Mariela's hand to pieces, then almost hitting the man in front of her directly in the face. The only thing that saved him was Asta's quick reflexes as he rebuffed the beam, throwing his sword directly in front of the guy's face a split second before the attack would have landed.

The man threw himself backwards, eyes wild as he stared around himself. "What the hell—"

"What was that?" Asta shouted at Gauche, seemingly not hearing the man who was still sputtering from the floor of the tavern.

"Stay out of it," Gauche hissed back, making Asta's jaw drop.

"Stay out of… what are you talking about? Why the hell are you attacking random people?"

Gauche gnashed his teeth, but before he could tell Asta just how little of an answer he owed him, a small voice dragged him out of his thoughts.

"Gauche?" Mariela's eyes were wide and her voice was quiet. She sounded almost…

Gauche didn't want to answer her. In fact, if Finral were here, he was half sure he would have forced the spatial mage to get him the hell out of here just to avoid having to hear how absolutely terrified Mariela sounded. Whether it was from the giant sword flying directly in front of her or the random burst of magic that almost hit a civilian in the face, it didn't really matter; regardless of the reason, it was obviously his fault.

"Gauche!" This voice, completely devoid of all of Mariela's hesitance, belonged to Noelle and was indignant enough that Gauche had no problem looking up at her with a narrowed eye that made it clear how much he would love to find someone to take his frustration out on. The look she gave him, however, almost made Gauche groan; Noelle just looked between him and Mariela's stunned, paled face with a look of total bewilderment. It spoke plainly: are you trying to kill her or what?

"Who the hell are you?" The man who Gauche had fired at was finally back on his feet, his face getting redder and redder as he shifted from fear, to irritation, to fury. His eyes dipped to the insignia on the front of Gauche's Black Bulls robe and his face twisted into a condescending sneer. "Oh, a Black Bull. I should have known."

"And what does that mean?" Vanessa didn't sound insulted, necessarily—but she did sound like the answer would decide on that for her. She looked up at the three men who'd been at their table flirting with them initially, an eyebrow raised as she passively brushed her pink hair over her shoulder to reveal the bull skull logo on her own robe.

"I…" as quickly as his sneer came, it vanished from the man's face as he looked around to his friends for help. Neither seemed to know what to do, either, so… all three left.

"What a shame," Vanessa mused, staring after the men as they retreated down the stairs to the main floor of the tavern. "They were cute, too."

Gauche scowled, but before he could say anything that he'd regret, Yami was stepping back through a portal, irritation already written all over his face.

"Didn't I tell you to keep him out of trouble until I got back?" Yami snapped at Asta, who immediately threw his hands up.

"Don't look at me, I stopped him from frying some random guy for no reason."

Yami raised an eyebrow at Asta, then turned to give the same look to Vanessa, who just laughed. "Yeah, Vanessa?" Yami pressed. "Was it for no reason?"

Vanessa didn't bother to answer, just continued to laugh as she poured herself another glass of wine and shook her head slightly. "I don't want any part of that."

"I can hear you," Gauche snapped, making Vanessa laugh even harder. He probably would have kept snapping—and probably would have said a lot worse than he had thus far—if not for the look of fear that still hadn't left Mariela's face. She stood, a bit unsteady on her feet, and looked at Finral with a weak smile.

"I, umm," she started, already looking uncomfortable. "Would you mind taking me back to the hideout? If it isn't too big a problem. I'm just, ahh, not feeling very well."

Finral's eyes went huge and he looked at Vanessa as if asking for help. It was Yami, however, who saved him from having to deal with the look of bloodthirst that was suddenly on Gauche's face.

"You don't look so great, either, kid. Finral, take her home."

With a smile frozen on his face and a notable glance at Gauche, Finral started, "Um, Captain, I don't think—"

"Did I ask you to think? Take her back to the hideout. Now."

Without another word, but with a look of supreme discomfort on his face, Finral opened a portal and gave Mariela a weak smile that seemed to match her own. "Ladies first."

Not needing to be told twice, Mariela dipped her head in a demure goodbye to everyone before stepping through. Finral, very purposefully refusing to look at anyone, followed her immediately, and the portal disappeared.

Yami grabbed the back of Gauche's neck, clamping down hard. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Gauche didn't bother trying to shake Yami off; instead, he just glared at him. "I didn't do anything."

Yami rolled his eyes, and Vanessa and Noelle stood. "We'll be taking our leave, boys." Vanessa gave Gauche a knowing smile that made him distinctly uncomfortable, then threw a wink at Yami. "Bye, now."

"Bye, Dorksta," Noelle huffed haughtily as she passed him, face flushed even as she refused to look at him. Asta rolled his eyes but waved her a goodbye as the two women started down the stairs.

Yami and Gauche stared at each other for a second—Yami looking like he was waiting for something and Gauche looking like he was daring Yami to ask for it. Asta, oblivious to any of the subtext, looked between the two in confusion but said nothing.

Finally, Yami asked simply, "Don't care, right?"

"Nope. Not at all."

"Good." Yami took a drag off his cigarette before closing his eyes and shrugging. After letting the breath out slowly, he opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow at Gauche's overtly defiant face. "Because it looks like the feeling might be mutual, after that stunt."