Gauche was standing outside of Gordon's family home, and it was taking everything in him not to drag Mariela back onto his broom and take off as fast as he could.

He liked Gordon—really, he did. If he was being honest, as annoying as it was having the curse mage do creepy things like insist that they were best friends, after all the time that they had spent between missions and at the library together over the past few months, Gordon really was something like Gauche's closest friend. He was even starting to be able to understand him without having to look at his mouth when he was talking to try and read his lips. But the house in front of him… radiated curse magic. It was almost suffocating. And he was having a hard time seeing anything good coming of letting Mariela waltz into the place. If anything, he was starting to feel concerned that she'd walk back out even more cursed than she was right now.

"You're positive that they aren't going to curse us right, Gordon?" Gauche asked, eyeing the house with suspicion. Gordon had also mentioned basically running away from home when he'd left… so the fact that they had been invited back with open arms, even after his family hadn't responded to his questions when he'd sent letters home asking about Asta's cursed arms, was making Gauche feel less than comfortable.

"Cursed?" Grey squealed, gripping her broom tightly to her chest and pressing her side up against Gordon as she stared around herself in horror. "How embarrassing!"

"Well… let's get this over with," Gordon whispered uneasily, making Gauche side-eye him—he had noticeably not answered the question. Not even Gordon seemed to want to walk through the gates they were all standing outside of, never mind knock on the front door past them. He'd made it clear before they'd come—and even back before he'd sent the letter—that he wasn't very close to his family. He didn't like curse magic and had apparently left home and the magic of his family behind him a long time ago to become a Magic Knight and help people, instead. It was exactly the sort of thing that Gauche would have expected from Gordon if he'd really thought about where he was from, actually. And it almost made him feel bad that they had had to drag him back here… almost, anyway.

"Then let's go," Gauche said gruffly, giving Gordon a small shove on the back forward. "We can't stand around all day waiting, I guess."

Gordon nodded his head jerkily, still eyeing the house like he didn't trust it, but took a hesitant step forward. Grey, who had been standing next to him, jumped immediately with a small squeal and hurried to catch up, wrapping her arms around Gordon's left arm tightly to stay as close as possible.

"Don't leave me behind!" she blubbered, tears filling her eyes. Gordon turned and smiled at her, his pale face tinging just a bit pink as he did. "It would be so embarrassing to be left out here!"

Gauche rolled his eyes at the two, but tightened his own grip on Mariela's hand. She'd been unusually quiet for the entire trip over, and had yet to comment on the apparent house of horrors in front of them. It was starting to make him worry.

"Are you okay?" he leaned down to ask in a low voice, lagging behind as Gordon pushed through the front gate. "If you want to stay out here—"

"No," she said hastily, shaking her head so fast that her blonde curls bounced just a bit. "I… I need to go in. We're only here because of me, I need to go in. I just…" she swallowed hard and turned big eyes shining with tears up to him. "What if they tell me it's impossible?"

Gauche set his jaw. "Then we'll find a way to make it possible."

When they caught up to Gordon and Grey, the front door had opened and all the Agrippa's had gathered on the other side of it. Grey was basically hiding behind Gordon at this point, but from what Gauche could hear, all anyone was doing was introducing themselves.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Mariela greeted warmly once they stopped by Gauche's side. "Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with us. I'm Mariela."

"She's the one that I wrote to you about," Gordon explained quietly, and his father nodded his head thoughtfully before leaning forward in a way that made all of Gauche's hackles rise. He just couldn't help it—the family, regardless of how nice they were turning out to be, was just kind of creepy. Gordon, seeming to notice Gauche's shoulders literally hitch up toward his ears at the motion, added quickly, "And this is my best friend, her boyfriend Gauche."

Gordon's father, Nathan, turned big, dark eyes on Gauche in seeming greeting. "Hello," he whispered. "It's nice to meet both of you. We were just about to all sit for some supper. Would you care to join us before we go to my offices to discuss things more thoroughly?"

Gauche opened his mouth to object—he really wasn't in the mood to play house with potential answers so close at hand—but closed it immediately as Mariela tugged on their joined hands. As if she was expecting him to deny it, she said immediately, "We would be honored. Thank you so much for allowing us into your home."

The Agrippas smiled back at them and cleared a path into the dark, menacing home, inviting them all in without words. Gauche swallowed hard before tightening his grip on Mariela's hand again and taking a step forward.

The things people do for love, right?

x

"So, from what Gordon tells me, you were attacked with cursed mage fire, yes?"

They had all just finished a rather uncomfortable meal together and were finally getting settled into Nathan's work offices to talk more about why they'd made the trip there in the first place. Grey was still basically hiding behind Gordon, her face in her hands and a single eye peeking out from between her fingers to watch what was going on around her, while Gordon looked around the room they were all in. It was packed with medical things—from what his father had been telling them, he was studying how to lessen pain, something that had caught Gordon's attention immediately. There had obviously been some sort of misunderstanding about what the family business currently was, and Mariela was grateful that Gordon was getting a chance to figure it out. She was… 'nervous' didn't come near to covering it, but she was also feeling very, very grateful. Gordon had been openly worried about his family not accepting him once he'd come back home, and his family hadn't only been accepting, they had been incredibly kind to all of them, especially Mariela.

"Yes," she confirmed, fidgeting in her seat. Without thinking, her hand when to her permanently injured shoulder. "The Eye of The Midnight Sun cut a path through my village and set my farm on fire. My brother and I were the only survivors, but he inhaled so much smoke that he's now comatose, and when breaking down the door to get to him, I exposed myself directly to the flames. I damaged my shoulder and mana channels." Mariela hesitated. Here was the moment that she'd spent the entire ride here nervous about—she needed to tell Nathan about her illness, but that meant telling Gordon and Grey, as well. Even for how long they'd been helping with the research, Mariela still hadn't been able to tell them to truth about her literal deadline and the magical disease behind it. She just didn't know how. But now she was seriously regretting not having tried harder to tell them before. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "My family… has a history with a genetic disease that degrades mana channels and the mana reserves of the people who have it. My mother was dying of it when the Eye of the Midnight Sun came through and did what they did; it had already weakened her so much that she could no longer walk. Apparently, the mage fire activated some latent form of the disease within my brother and I, and we… we are both now also dying of it, as well."

Gauche's hand was gripping her shoulder tightly in reassurance, but she still couldn't help but jump when something rattled to the ground loudly behind her. Mariela shot a look over her shoulder and met the wide eyes of both Gordon and Grey, who had dropped her hands as well as her jaw. Gordon had dropped the book he had been holding, his hands lax in front of him.

"… dying?" Gordon asked quietly. Grey's mouth just opened and closed, her eyes filling with tears.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you two," Mariela whispered, horrified to find that she was feeling choked up. "I didn't mean to keep it a secret, but… I didn't know how to tell you, either."

"You'll be alright, though, right?" Grey asked shakily, turning her big eyes for the first time to look directly at Nathan. "You can help her, can't you?"

Nathan took a deep breath, and Mariela turned back around in her seat to look at him. He had steepled his fingers in front of himself and his brow was crinkled in thought. It took him another moment to answer, but finally he said, "I will do my very best."

"What does that mean?" Gauche asked immediately, his hand tightening again on Mariela's uninjured shoulder. She brought her hand up to place it over his. "Do you have any ideas at all as to how to help her?"

Nathan, agonizingly slowly, shook his head. "No," he whispered. "I do not. But I have worked with mage fire before. It isn't a one size fits all thing, but I have records on our family having used it to curse historically, as well." A shiver went up Mariela's spine at that, and as if he had noticed, Nathan was quick to add, "Obviously, we would be using it to do research to work backwards and see if there's anything we can do to undo it. How long were you all planning on staying here? We have rooms that can accommodate all of you, if you were wanting to stay the night."

"We can't stay through the night," Gordon answered quietly, making Mariela almost sigh in relief. As kind as everyone had been, this house was still not one that she would want to stay at for very long if she could get around it. "Is there any way that we could take the records that we have back with us? I can bring them back when we're done and stay when I come back to study a little bit, if you're willing to let me, Father."

A smile spread brightly across Nathan's pale face. He had already mentioned waiting for his son to come home, and it was clear that he had been hoping to get more time with him to pass on some of the things that he'd learned over the past years. "I would absolutely love that, son."

"Thank you, Father," Gordon bowed, pulling Grey down with him when she didn't let go of his arm.

"Thank you, sir," Mariela exclaimed, bowing her head deeply in gratitude and squeezing Gauche's hand. "I'll be sure to take great care of the things that you lend us."

Nathan waved them off gently. "It's no problem. I'll show you to the family library." He stood and led them all deeper into the creaking old house, the halls never lightening and the winding hallways only seeming to get more and more complex. The house had looked huge from the outside, and somehow still managed to be even bigger now that they were inside of it. Finally, Gordon's father stopped at a heavy wooden door that creaked loudly when he pushed it open. Mariela could feel her eyes glittering as she cast them around the candle-lit room and the rows and rows of shelved books and scrolls in it, and she thanked Nathan again as she stepped past him into it.

"No problem," he whispered, but leaned in and managed to say even more quietly, "But can I have a moment of your time before I start pulling books, Mariela?"

Mariela could feel Gauche's hand stiffen in her own and had to suppress a smile—she was sure that he'd heard that, somehow. She turned and gave him a gentle shove into the room. "Go ahead," she said with a smile, "I'll catch up."

Gauche hesitated, but finally sighed and gave her a nod. "Fine," he said gruffly, hesitating another moment before letting her hand go and heading further into the dark library. "I'll see you in a second."

Mariela turned back toward Nathan and smiled nervously. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Would you…" he paused before finally asking, "Would you happen to be a member of the Vermillion family?"

Mariela froze. How could he possibly have known that? As if he could read her mind, Nathan hurried to add, "I was approached once, years ago, by a woman who looked… very much like you, now that I'm thinking more about it. A beautiful woman, but she was very, very sick. She said that coming to me was a last resort, but that she was desperate and leaving town, so she needed to know that she'd tried everything before she left. It was a truly unfortunate circumstance."

With a shaky breath and a shakier smile, Mariela laughed awkwardly. "That must have been my mother."

Nathan nodded. "I was wondering if that was the case. I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your parents."

Mariela's smile steadied into something very real, but very sad. "Thank you, sir. I'm sorry about what happened to them, too."

Nathan reached out a hand and laid it gently on Mariela's arm. She stifled a jump at the freezing touch, trying not to be rude. He smiled at her, seemingly totally oblivious to how cold his hands were. "We'll do our best, dear. Don't lose faith."

x

Gauche splashed his face with water, happy to finally be off his broom. It had taken the entire afternoon, but between the four of them, they had managed to get all the materials that Nathan had found on mage fire back with them to Mariela's room. Gordon and Grey had just said their goodbyes and left, leaving Gauche and Mariela alone together.

He cast a tentative look over his shoulder and found Mariela already going through one of the older scrolls on her knees next to the bed where she'd had them all dropped. She had been almost completely silent since she'd finished her conversation with Nathan, and Gordon and Grey had been kind enough to give her space… though Gauche had been sure to pull them both aside immediately and make sure that was going to happen.

"I can't believe that he let us take all these," Mariela marveled, making Gauche turn around and smile at her. She looked up at him and beamed. "There has to be something in here somewhere, right? There has to be."

Gauche nodded and knelt down next to her. He put an arm around her shoulder and held her close as she yawned and leaned into him. "Why don't we move all these and get you to bed? It's been a long day, and you should get some rest."

"Yeah," Mariela mumbled, shaking herself a bit. "You're right."

Gauche swallowed around the lump in his throat as the two silently stood and started moving the books and scrolls over to pile neatly next to her desk; the desk itself had long ago filled with other materials that she had bookmarked and was constantly shifting through whenever she had a moment. No doubt she would be carefully copying pages and pages worth of material from the things they'd grabbed today to add to the pile.

Gauche lost himself to thought as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Neither of them had mentioned it, but he was sure that if he'd noticed it, she had as well—Mariela was tiring more easily and had started to get noticeably weaker. Her hunger was nearly completely gone; at first, Gauche had assumed that it was because of nerves, but he'd noticed her eating less and less as the weeks had passed. He had to remind her to break for every single meal, now.

The sickness was getting worse. And that thought absolutely terrified him, had been haunting him more and more, especially when the two of them weren't together.

"Would you mind…" he asked, his voice cracking and making him cough into his hand and blush furiously. Trying again, he asked, "Would you mind if I… stayed the night?"

Mariela turned a surprised look on him, but it softened almost immediately into a smile. "Of course," she answered, jokingly adding, "You wouldn't mind sharing a bed with me, would you?"

Gauche smiled, answering before he could think about it, "I was hoping you'd say that." He blushed furiously at that, then turned and added, "I'll go, uhh, wait in the hall. While you change into something to sleep in. Okay?"

Before she could answer, Gauche had slipped out the door.

He took a deep breath as he leaned against the wall next to it, waiting for her to come out and grab him. Since they'd officially gotten together, he hadn't actually spent the night with her—he just hadn't known how to ask. But he just… wasn't ready to leave her, just yet. Trust be told, the longer they were together, the less ready he ever was to leave her. Gauche found a peace with Mariela that he didn't think he'd ever found with anyone or anything else in his entire life… even his Marie. And the thought made his heart hurt a bit, but it also made him feel… warm. Whole. Complete. It felt right, to be with Mariela.

Maybe this is growing up, he thought to himself dimly, the door opening and catching his attention, and the sight of Mariela driving all other thoughts from his head.

She was wearing a simple white babydoll night grown, the thin straps leading into thin, gauzy material that ended a few inches above her knees. Her golden hair hung down around her shoulders, and she had pulled a thin cardigan over her shoulders. For a brief moment, at the back of his head, Gauche wanted to frown—he knew that she was covering her shoulder, and he would never be happy that she felt she had to around him. But the thought was smothered out by the fire at the back of his throat that he was sure was also visibly flushing his face.

She was… so very, absolutely, incredibly… beautiful.

"Ready to come to bed?" she asked softly, stepping back into the room and letting him back in. Mariela yawned again and climbed into her bed, turning to pat the space next to her.

Gauche, still blushing, fumbled with the light for a moment before finally managing to hit it off. In the dark, he pulled off his vest, then his shirt, then finally each of his boots and socks. Carefully, he got into the bed next to her and settled down. Silently, he thanked every higher power he could think of that he had thought to turn the light off before getting into the bed, because he could only feel his face heating up more and more as Mariela found her way to in between his arms and cuddled in close to his chest. After he turned off the lights, she must have taken off the cardigan, because he could feel the bare skin of her arms against him, then the bare skin of her chest pressed against his side.

"Goodnight, Gauche," she whispered into his ear, making the hair on his neck stand on end, along with every nerve in his body.

"G… goodnight," Gauche managed to get out, his throat tight. His heartbeat wildly in his chest as he fought to keep every muscle in his body from tensing as she snuggled in closer to his side. Every inch of her skin against his felt like it was on fire.

It was going to be a long night.