Summary: Naomi goes to congratulate Gabe after his promotion to Captain, and an exchange between him and Mateo leads her to some unfortunate conclusions.

Naomi was cheering louder than anybody as Gabe stepped across the finish line of the captain trials, Rico's arm over his shoulder. Whatever bizarre mood had possessed him the day before seemed to have vanished, and he was back to being his decent and reliable self. She'd have to ask him what all that had been about. Firstly, though, she'd have to congratulate him properly. Pride on his behalf swelled in her chest as he accepted the captain's sword from Elena, and she grabbed Mateo by his elbow as the other guards began to crowd around Gabe below.

"C'mon, let's go see him!"

Mateo nodded, and the two of them began their descent from the royal box. The relative privacy and the view of the whole arena were definite perks of being friends with a princess, but the distance from the field meant they had to squeeze their way down the steps past the throngs of people all trying to exit at once. By the time they got to the field, Elena was nowhere to be seen, no doubt whisked away on more royal business, and the guards were filing out of the arena, Gabe's familiar silhouette at their head.

"Gabe!" Naomi sprinted toward the group, the lines of guards parting up the middle as she barreled through them. She threw herself up around Gabe's shoulders before he could turn around, and he staggered forward with a grunt, craning his neck to look at where she dangled against his back. Naomi laughed. "What are you doing, trying to sneak off before we could congratulate you properly?"

Gabe raised an amused eyebrow. "We?"

Naomi turned her head and scanned the empty space behind the scattered guards. Whoops. "Well, Mateo was here. I guess I lost him somewhere."

"You lost him?"

"He's fine. He's somewhere." She dropped from Gabe's neck and looked around, spying Mateo stuck on the opposite side of a large crowd of exiting spectators. He was up on his toes, trying to catch a glimpse of them over the crowd's heads, and he pulled an apologetic face and waved as he finally noticed Naomi looking. "He'll be here in a minute," she said, turning back to Gabe.

The other guards continued past, some clapping Gabe's shoulders or offering him an extra 'congrats again' as they left. One guard remarked, "See you soon, Baker Boy," as he passed, and Gabe straightened up with a chuckle, puffing out his chest.

"Hey, that's Captain Baker Boy to you," he said. "And the barracks better be empanada-free by the time I get there!"

There was a chorus of laughter and 'yes sir'-s as they went on their way, and Gabe squared his shoulders, looking proud.

Mateo ran up to them, finally free of the blockade. "Whew, okay! I'm here." Smiling, he reached up to slap his hand into Gabe's, gripping it firmly. "Good job today!"

"Thanks! Both of you."

"So," Naomi piped up again, "are you gonna show us your fancy new sword or are you gonna leave us hanging?"

"Well, I saw it before the contest," Mateo said, but he still leaned in excitedly as Gabe drew it from its sheath and held it out, one hand on the hilt and the other supporting the flat of the blade with his fingers.

"Pretty great, huh?" he asked, grinning ear to ear. It was a much nicer looking sword than his old, standard issue one. Its swooping, golden crossguard wouldn't look out of place on one of the ceremonial items that hung in the palace halls, but the blade was far more heavy-duty than any of those delicate, decorative pieces. If it was any heavier than Gabe's old sword, though, he didn't show it, his arms holding it perfectly steady.

So why had Mateo seen it before? She meant to ask, but Gabe spoke up before she could. "By the way, Mateo, thanks for the potion this morning. I'm not sure what I would've done without it."

"Oh, no problem! I was actually a little worried there at the end. I thought maybe it hadn't worked."

An alarm wire tripped in Naomi's mind and she yanked her head up, staring at him. What would Gabe have needed a potion for? And right before a contest, no less? No, the guys wouldn't have done anything illicit.

…Would they?

"What potion?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

Gabe tensed at the danger in her tone, but shot his accusatory look at Mateo instead. "You didn't tell her?"

Mateo wrinkled his nose, confused. "Was I supposed to? It sounded like the sort of thing you wouldn't want people to know about."

Naomi's suspicions grew tenfold, the alarm bell now an entire symphony. "Oh, really?"

They wouldn't have cheated the competition. They were both better than that. They had to be.

Gabe had sheathed his sword and was holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "Okay, it's not what it sounds like."

"Well it sounds pretty bad!" She put her hands on her hips, staring up at him in a challenge. "It sounds like you had Mateo make something to give you an edge during the competition!"

"No!" they both protested.

"If you'll just let me explain—" Gabe went on.

"Gabe was cursed!" Mateo added.

The first thread of doubt at her conclusion wove its way between her assumptions, but still on high alert as she was, it morphed instead into something uglier. Mateo would've believed Gabe in a second if he told him he'd been cursed with 'super-slowness' or something and needed to combat it. Like their school days all over again. Gabe would never do that, she knew, he would never, but some deep seated defensiveness, hideous and deceptive, crawled up through her guts and had her wheeling on him, glaring.

"Oh yeah?" she snapped. "What kind of curse?"

Gabe had crossed his arms, hunching in on himself with his face pinched and downcast. He was embarrassed, Naomi realized, and her anger drained in a rush as he spoke, guilt flooding into its place. "I… picked up a sword I wasn't supposed to touch, and it got stuck to my hand and changed my personality."

"It's why he was acting like such a clown yesterday," Mateo chimed in, and Gabe winced.

"Ouch, Mateo."

"Well, you were." He turned back to Naomi. "If anything, it would've been more like cheating if Gabe hadn't taken the potion, since then El Guapo would've been competing instead of him."

"You're not helping…" Gabe muttered.

"And even if it was cheating—"

"Which it wasn't!" Gabe insisted. "Mateo!"

But Mateo plowed ahead, heedless of Gabe's cautionary tone. "Even if it was, it's kind of hypocritical of you to have an issue with that all of a sudden, considering how you wanted me to make him something for the Peace Festival olaball game!"

Heat flooded Naomi's face. Why would he just announce that?

"Wait, you wanted me to cheat at olaball?" Gabe asked, sounding hurt.

"No! Mateo, I wasn't serious about that!"

"You sounded pretty serious," he countered. "You kept going on about how awful he was at it, and—"

Naomi leaped forward and clapped a hand over his mouth, with Gabe's hand a split second behind. Mateo blinked rapidly, glancing between them, before letting out a bewildered 'mmphf?' through both their palms.

"Mateo," Naomi said, her voice strained. She dropped her forehead onto his shoulder. "We love you, but you're digging us all deeper right now. Please stop."

"I really don't need to hear any more about that," Gabe added. He still looked wounded, between Naomi's accusations and Mateo's commentary, and Naomi's insides gave another painful twist. "It really was just a cursed sword that I couldn't get rid of," he went on, as long as Mateo couldn't jump back in. "Why would I go back for Rico if I was so desperate to win I was willing to cheat?"

"You didn't go back when he fell yesterday," Naomi pointed out before she could stop herself.

Gabe flinched. "Yeah. I know. I wanted to, but Guapo…" He let his hand drop from Naomi's and ran it across the back of his head. "I know I shouldn't have messed with the sword. I should have just taken it to the museum like I was supposed to. Believe me, whatever it was Guapo was doing to me, I didn't want that."

An annoyed noise slipped out of Mateo's mouth as he finally pried Naomi's hand off his face. "Hey, Gabe?"

He shot Mateo an unamused look. "What?"

"Where is the sword?"

Gabe blinked. "...What?"

"Where did you put it after you dealt with the curse?" Mateo clarified. "Where is it now?"

"Oh, uh…" He pointed toward one of the other exits. "Elena and I were able to get it stuck in a cart back behind the stadium. It should still be there."

"'Should still' —You just left it there?! Where anyone could grab it?!"

"Well, I had to get to the contest—"

Mateo groaned, a guttural, angry sound. "Gabe! I was up all night working on that reversal potion!"

"You would've been up all night anyway! Okay, look, just calm down!" Gabe had his hands up again as he started backing toward the exit. "I'll go get it right now."

"No, I'll go get it," Mateo snapped, sticking an arm out to cut him off. "You can't move it without touching it again!"

The remark struck a stubborn nerve, and Gabe bristled. "What, and I suppose that you—"

Mateo brandished his tamborita, gesturing at it with an incredulous, 'duh' expression.

"—You can. Wizard. Right." Gabe hunched in again, his face flushing. "Never mind. Carry on."

Rolling his eyes, Mateo stormed off, his irritated muttering fading into the distance.

Gabe rubbed at his neck as he watched him go. "...I really owe him one. I don't think I could've competed if he hadn't helped me, at least not honestly." He looked over at Naomi, something sad in his eyes and plaintive in his voice. "You don't really think I would've cheated, do you?"

Naomi's heart sank, settling like lead into the pit of her stomach. It was a fair question, though it hit like a club. She had been willing to believe, for however short a time, that someone she was supposed to trust would do something so dishonest. Worse yet, she'd been willing to believe he'd betrayed not only the integrity of the competition, but Mateo's trust as well, dragging him into it, and no matter how she tried to frame her overreaction as an act of familiar protectiveness, it painted neither of her friends in a flattering light. Gabe wasn't manipulative, and Mateo wasn't stupid. It had been unfair of her to think otherwise.

"No," she finally admitted, her voice soft. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that."

Relief dampened the hurt in his eyes, though it didn't banish it entirely. He tried to laugh it off, anyway. "Well, I can see how you did. I did take the sword. And…" He let out a slow breath, a guilty, not-quite smile on his face. "I probably should have come clean about what was going on yesterday already. I know I was acting terrible, and as much as I want to blame Guapo, I was still the one that didn't do my job in the first place."

"Still. I didn't mean to put such a damper on your big day." She cringed, wringing her hands and giving him a weak smile. "Congrats again?"

Gabe's face was tight with discomfort. "Actually, I was just thinking it might not be my 'big day' for long. Professor Mendoza is gonna kill me when she finds out I took the sword." He shuddered. "I have no idea what I'm gonna tell her."

"I could try talking to her for you," Naomi offered. She'd been studying Old Maruvian with the professor ever since their dig the previous fall, and they'd built up a steady rapport in that time. Maybe it would be possible to soften the blow. "It's the least I could do after. Y'know. Yelling at you for no reason."

Before Gabe could respond, Mateo strode back up to them, the sword in question hovering in the air beside him in a ring of orange light. "Or you can tell her that the Royal Wizard has taken it for study, and the museum can have it back when he's done with it."

Gabe raised an eyebrow. "What, you want me to lie to her?"

"Who's lying?" Mateo crossed his arms, sending the sword spinning in the air as he moved his wand. "I'm keeping it. I don't know when I'm going to get another chance to study a cursed object, so I'm not missing this one." He lowered his voice, annoyed. "Honestly, I don't know why she didn't bring it straight to me in the first place. I mean," he spread his arms and rolled his eyes, and Naomi had to duck back as the sword swung again, "I'm the only person in the Kingdom that's actually qualified to work with cursed items!"

"Maybe work with it somewhere no one's gonna get stabbed," Naomi said, still leaning away.

"I appreciate that, Mateo, Naomi, but I can't let you guys take the fall for me," Gabe said. "I should be honest with her."

Once again, Gabe made perfectly clear how off-the-mark Naomi's judgment had been, and she met his eyes, hoping the silent apology carried. He gave a small nod, the corner of his mouth tilting up.

Mateo, oblivious to the silent exchange, just shrugged. "Whatever you say. But I'm still keeping the sword."

So, like... what did they do with the sword after the episode?

I've actually got a headcanon that Mateo and Mendoza just Do Not Get Along bc they can't agree on who should get first dibs on magical artifacts. Mateo thinks they should all go through his workshop first so he can figure out proper & safe handling/storage measures, and Mendoza thinks they should all go to the museum first for safekeeping and Mateo should have to file a formal requisition like a normal person if he wants to study one. Naomi is often an unfortunate middleman for their disputes.

Speaking of unfortunate dispute middlemen, Mateo is genuinely trying to defend Gabe here. He's just. Not doing a great job of it. In his defense, he hasn't slept.