Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The plan was perfect.

All he had to do in order to put his rival out of commission for good was one simple thing. There’d be no more maiming, no more bloodshed, no swinging weapons around aggressively and definitely no meddling female partners casting magic everywhere! Daleth holds in his hand a small vial of a floral scented liquid, watching it glow in the dim light of his hiding spot in some brush. It’s the sweet sap from a kind of flower that is being grown as an herb by the fairies in their den here in the Shinjuku area of the underworld. A little convincing here and there, some choice smooth talk and presto! He has something that can be the Messiah’s undoing.

It would not harm him in the slightest, no. All this nectar of the “love-in-idleness” flower will do is cause Aleph to fall in love with the first person he sees, after having it be sprayed onto his eyes. Of course, Daleth is clever and thinks ahead, already finding someone that he will use to drag his rival down. An elven woman by the name of Hanoun, the very same person who had given him the drug in the first place. He didn’t even think anything of it, other than thinking it would be a brilliant way to give back to the elf after she had helped him heal, as well as decommissioning Aleph forever. He’d be too enamoured with her to even bother with anything else!

It would be easier to wait for Aleph to find a place to rest and then attack him in his sleep, but the guy is always wandering with a party; His lady friend (who is scary as hell… rather not mess with her at all.) and at least one demon, even when he, himself, can also summon demons. Daleth curses quietly to himself at that, thinking that his rival is openly mocking him for having unnecessary backup with him, when most of the time Aleph is a threat on his own. But, as the scheming anti-Messiah lays in hiding near Hanoun’s drugstore, he spies through the bushes that Aleph is not with anyone besides his lovely lady friend this time. It could very well be possible that Oberon and Titania might have wanted him to call back his demons, or maybe they’ve exhausted his supply of Magnetite? Who knows, and Daleth sure doesn’t care, this is perfect .

He’ll just wait until Aleph is close enough, then he’ll just jump out of the greenery like a cartoon villain and everything will fall into place! The fingers around the glowing vial of sap tremble as the owner watches his target, waiting for just the right moment. He needs to make sure that Aleph is close enough to the drugstore so that he’ll see Hanoun just as she’s running out. Aleph and his… okay, he really needed to remember her name. It started with an H just like Hanoun’s and… they both are blonde, and from what he could tell they’re both pretty long legged and buxom. He wouldn’t even tell the difference, even if he could? Hirana? Hisoka? Hi-

“Hiroko...”

Yes! That’s it! Wait… Aleph’s voice sounded way too close there.

“We’re going around in circles again, the map doesn’t seem to be working here.”

“It’s jammed again it looks like, we’ll have to rely on our own sense of direction, Aleph…”

Oh shit . They are pretty damn close! So this is it, now or never. Daleth takes in a deep breath, and then does exactly as he has planned, spotting the two stopped just a few yards from his hiding place. The look on Aleph’s face as the person who is about to shake his world once again, flailing his arms and screaming like a madman. Oh man, Daleth only wishes that he could capture this moment on film, or even a few photos of this. But the memory at least will be so sweet in his mind for years to come, oh yes.

“Ahaha! We meet for the last time, Aleph! For I have the means to finally defeat you!” The excited renegade exclaims, barking out some final one-liners just before letting Aleph have it. The two before him quickly go from surprised to downright annoyed. This is the last time they look down on him, and the last time that Aleph will get away with humiliating him and treat him like he’s some kind of nuisance!

“I don’t even have to lay a hand on you, we don’t even have to fight! I’m going to bring you down the way that I should have since the start, just like what that pretty Templar lady had tried to do! Love will prevail!” … Okay maybe he should have memorized what he wanted to say to Aleph a little more, because this impromptu stuff sounded a little corny. But no matter, as he is going to raise his arm - which also causes Aleph to reach for one of his guns - and quickly pop open that cork and sling the contents over Aleph, effectively splashing him in his face.

“Farewell, Aleph! Ahahaha!”

“What the hell-!?”

He did it. It only took him a month and lots of totally not random run-ins with Aleph and his crew to finally beat the so-called Messiah. Daleth doesn’t even move from his spot, cackling triumphantly as he watches the blonde lady - Hiroko, that’s right - remove her hand from the holster of her own weapon to stare over at Aleph. That potion should work in an instant, and watching his rival recoil and rub his face and eyes with his hands just means it’ll work even faster. Now all he’ll have to do is go get Hanoun, which he’ll do right now and-

Wait. She was supposed to be in her shop, right? Even if he had told her to come out when given a signal, the elf still would have came out to see what the commotion was about, right? Daleth begins to tense a bit, quickly turning his attention back to Aleph, especially now that the guy looks absolutely pissed .

“Okay, you know what?”

“Aleph-”

“No Hiroko. I have to do this, I really do. I’m tired of this and you are too, don’t lie!”

The Anti-Messiah freezes, beads of sweat forming along his brow as Aleph’s lightning reflexes reach out and grapple him, fist full of his emerald cowl and wrenching a small squeal from his throat. Okay, that was lame. He should have ran for cover to live another day, but now he’s gonna get decked most likely.

… If Aleph didn’t manage to open his eyes that is. Daleth almost let loose another embarrassing sound as he watches his rival’s irritated expression melt away and soften within seconds. Their eyes lock and forced Daleth to turn away. The other arm that was raised lowers

“Aleph. Please calm down, let’s just go.” Hiroko calls out, slowly walking towards the two and pretty much ignores the distress in the former aggressor of this “fight”, who is now trying to wriggle his way out of Aleph’s iron grip. It takes her a second to realize that he’s coming for her, after releasing the clasp of his cape and she sidesteps out of the way quickly.

“Wait! You have to help me! This is terrible!” Daleth finds himself yelling, trying to reach for and hide behind his rival’s lady, as they both stared over to Aleph. As the long haired man turned slowly, his expression and body language is that of someone who is lovestruck. Daleth knows that, even as he’s trying to use Hiroko as a shield now, that his rival is looking through her and straight to him.

“I’ll say it is… as I never realized before on how much I love you.” He can hear that voice, that was once angered before now so soft and sweet. It would be nice hearing that from a girl, but from a man? Aleph no less? That Hanoun! Where did she even go… this wasn’t supposed to happen.

“... What?” Hiroko pipes up now, taking a step forward, with Daleth stepping backwards. Oh no. This might be even worse than getting decked. He watches with utter horror that Aleph is closing the distance between them again, bypassing Hiroko without a care.

“Hiroko, I’m sorry, but I need a moment to speak with my beloved Daleth.” Aleph speaks, his hands still clutching Daleth’s discarded cloak. This is something he really didn’t want to see at all, his rival looking so stricken with love that he’s ignoring everything else and how his face is still dripping with the thin, glowing liquid, which also got into his hair. The glow is quickly fading away, however, leaving the liquid to appear more like water after a while. The candy pink coloring makes its way right into Aleph’s blue eyes, turning his pupils pink as well.

It’s a good thing that the potion worked only on Aleph, and yet it still freaks the renegade more as he now is without Hiroko, Hanoun, or anyone else to shield him. And he really, really doesn’t want to try and attack Aleph, even when this time… it would be so much easier to do? The guy doesn’t seem like he’d fight back? But the spiky haired warrior shakes his head and holds his arm out, eyes darting from his rival to Hiroko and back again.

“No! Nononono- Don’t let him anywhere near me!” He cries out desperately, raising his other arm as well and swearing that Hiroko was looking concerned for him? Well, maybe not, for why would she? He had just jumped out at attacked Aleph once again. But the expression on her face was both exacerbation and disappointment, especially evident in her response.

“You know, you’re right Daleth. Love will prevail, and who am I to stop it?” Came her response, figuring out the effects of the liquid right away. Which… isn’t hard to do actually, as Aleph has just announced his love for their enemy. One can wonder that these two were most likely closer than he thought, maybe just as or even more close than Aleph was to the Templar lady, ah… he believes her name was Beth. Thinking of dead girls and almost-girlfriends wasn’t going to help him in the least, though, as he cries out in frustration.

“You’re no help at all!” He adds, dodging the Messiah who has been closing in on him now, reaching out desperately to catch him.

“Well, you charmed my partner. After chasing us around and attacking him out of the blue for a month. I don’t need to do anything to assist you.” Hiroko pauses as she watches the two begin to run, and she does nothing to help or stop either of them, her hands on her hips.

“You know what? This might have been what you wanted all along, is it not? You both have my blessing, at least. Well… Congratulations.”

“Oh don’t you sound so enthusiastic!”

Hiroko says nothing more as she sighs, shaking her head slowly. Aleph’s voice alerts the renegade once more, as they move further and further away from Hiroko and the drugstore and deeper into the green, overgrown Shinjuku.

“Wait for me, please! Let me hold you, love you like I should have the moment we first met!”

The two’s voices could be heard all over the den of fairies as they chased one another around fountains, weaving through trees and flowers, even through abandoned buildings. Yet Aleph still remains on Daleth’s tail the entire time.

Chapter Text

“Daleth please…”

“No.”

“I didn’t mean to frighten you-”

“No!”

“Please, come down. It’s dangerous.”

So this is it then. Karma at its finest hour, delivering a fate that has not only something favorable, but also something Daleth very much didn’t want. Aleph, under the influence of the nectar of the love-in-idleness flower, is now standing right under a tree drowning in wisteria. Though it’s beautiful, with the ground carpeted in lavender petals and the hanging flowers and vines in the air, Daleth couldn’t even begin to properly enjoy it with the charmed fellow trying to climb up the tree with him.

“Stay down there! Don’t come any closer!” He hisses, bristling like he’s some kind of cat and finds himself stuck almost like one. Though, the branches aren’t too high up from the ground, he could easily just jump down and - if he doesn’t slip on the flowers - can get a head start away from Aleph. But as he knows his own body, he’s much too tired to do that. Quite frankly, he’s much too tired for everything now, even trying to yell back at Aleph, poor sap, who is just acting how one does when his mind is altered by a mystery drug made to have him fall in love. Daleth is even feeling a little sorry for the guy, looking so pathetic as he his expression is a little hurt when he obeys the demand.

“So will you come down then? I don’t want you getting hurt.” The concerned Messiah speaks once more, hugging the tree as he attempts to find a way to climb it as he keeps his eyes on his rival.

“Save it for someone else, jerk!” Daleth responds curtly, now scooting along a thick branch after making sure it could hold him. But as he looks down he suddenly gains a clear view of his damn rival walking out under him, following his every move. He would tell the guy to move, but maybe it’s good that he’s there to be his safety net. Maybe he could just land on the guy and knock him out by “accident” and get an even greater head start? Then he could go to Hanoun and find a way to reverse this, at least just so that he could not have to fend off Aleph from trying to kiss him again.

He reaaaally doesn’t want to ever think about his sworn enemy trying to put the moves on him, and being so damn gentle and caring? It wasn’t even forced or trying to overpower Daleth or anything, as breaking free of that was really easy to do. But Aleph had caught him then, pulled him close and touched his face, caressing his skin so gently. The skin on his neck had crawled then, moist with sweat and pulse racing, they came so close to actually kissing then, and now he feels so weird thinking about it. It wasn’t something he wanted to experience then, yet he wonders how such a hard dude could be so gentle. He saw that guy nearly punch a hole through a demon two times bigger than him!

Daleth straddles the thinning branch, locking his ankles below it and covers his flushed face. Aleph is calling for him again with promises to not spook him, to be more careful and even catch him, should he fall. It’s all too much to take him, all his hard work netting him this, and here he’s thinking about how it’s not so bad ? Of course it’s bad! Aleph isn’t chasing after someone else, he’s upset Miss Hiroko, and now he, too, has been defanged somewhat, possibly permanently if he can’t get Aleph back to normal.

“Please, Daleth. Please come down, I don’t know what I’d do without you…” Comes another sorrowful request, and it would break Daleth’s heart if it was genuine, but it isn’t. It’s all the sap’s doing, putting these words in Aleph’s mouth. The renegade sighs hard then, slowly, began to descend from the tree via the branch, hanging down first and then allowing himself to drop.

“Only because you sound so damn pathetic right now… AH-AH! Keep your mitts to yourself!” Daleth acted quickly, noticing that the charmed Messiah was already trying to get close again, to wrap his arms around him. As if he really needs any more things to think about and turn over in his head, if they were things he should feel is nice. They aren’t, this is wrong. They are still enemies and Hanoun could have had a nice husband, for as much as he just hates Aleph… he has to admit that the guy is known to be pretty nice, when outside of battle. Another thing that pisses of Daleth, that’s for sure, as he reaches over to snatch at the garment his rival still held.

“And give me my damn cloak back, it’s getting chilly.” Maybe not as chilly as he makes it seem, but he just feels so naked without it. So with that accomplished, tossing and fastening his cape around his shoulders again, Daleth turns his back to the man in yellow and marches back to the trunk of the tree. There, he plops himself down to rest against it, not even surprised that Aleph comes over as well, sitting next to him at an uncomfortable proximity.

“Must you be so close like that? Some space, please.” He growls dangerously, having to move his sword out from under him as he tries to look intimidating to someone who really only sees him as his beloved. Of course, he’s ignored, mostly. Aleph does give him some space, but not much, as he rests his head on Daleth’s shoulder. The man looks just as exhausted as the Anti-Messiah feels, and Daleth prides himself as not being a complete asshole and gives the guy this at least. So long as he kept his hands to himself, everything will be peachy.

Of course, that wouldn’t last very long at all, as his unwanted partner slides his fingers between those of his idle hand. He sighs hard, not wanting to jerk around and shove at his rival, as he’s just gotten comfortable! He wants only to relax, take in the scent of the wisteria and enjoy the atmosphere, which is very calming despite what had went down today.

“I love you so much, Daleth.” He hears the once fearsome gladiator, Champion of Valhalla, say to him. It’s amazing how he changed so much, and yet still stayed the same. If that makes any sense? Daleth isn’t certain, since he never personally knew the guy and never cared to, but he can put two-and-two together, from just observing and filling in the blanks with logical guesses. Aleph really isn’t a bad man at all, and he still doesn’t think that he would have had it in him to kill him back during the arena fight, even if he wasn’t stopped by his girlfriend.

Which raises a good question, a test to how much that flower’s power has over his rival.

“So what about Miss Hiroko? Or even Beth? Don’t you love them?” Daleth asks slowly, tilting his head away from the resting Messiah even as the guy was snuggling even more up against him. It’s going to be a long night ahead of him, and he better think of ways to shake Aleph off if only during the night. Who knows what the fallen savior would do if given the chance to be in the same bedroom as him?

“What about them?” He hears Aleph ask, sounding uncaring and not at all wanting to talk about anyone else it seems. So Daleth continues.

“I’m pretty sure you love them, and not me.”

“No, I don’t. I never did, not as much as I love you and how I love you, that is… They pale in comparison to what you mean to me.”

“And… what do I mean to you?”

“Everything.”

Daleth swallows hard. Damn, this spell is really potent, especially now that he can feel Aleph’s breath on him now, another arm trying to coil around him and a knee rubbing up against his own. It’s just too much, it’s nice but… Not from Aleph, no. He just can’t take this anymore, and breaks their calm moment by going through with what he should have once Aleph sat down. Accidentally elbowing the long haired male in the ribs, Daleth quickly squirms his way out of Aleph’s grip, which willingly let him go, for now. He stands up and grumbles, patting the pollen and flower petals from his clothing, then adjusts his gear.

“I told you, I needed space! Jeez.” He scolds the other, not even looking at him while he stands with his back turned. He then almost feels both sorry and a bit relieved that those ladies don’t have to deal with this. Technically, that could mean he has some heroic traits as well, despite Daleth being the one that caused all of this. Must think of the brighter side of things, right? At least he doesn’t have to worry about Aleph attacking anyone, unless… maybe in the name of defending his lover. That would mean he could use this to his advantage? Ha! Having the Center’s beloved savior be his guard dog! Who would have thought.

“I just want to be closer to you, show you that I mean it.” He hears Aleph once again, then the rustling of petals until he can feel his rival’s presence at his feet. Daleth chose to look down and see the way Aleph positioned himself now; a hand on his boot, his modified eyes - those pink pupils stand out so much from the rest of his already bright blue eyes - and gazing up to him like-

Like he was Aleph’s everything.

The urge to kick the guy away rises within the renegade as he clicks his tongue and turns his attention away elsewhere, crossing his arms stubbornly. He wants to sit but then he’s afraid Aleph would be all over him even more than before. So it’s leaning against the tree while standing for now, knotting his brows together and purses his lips as he speaks again.

“Yeah well, you’re lucky I don’t just dump you in the nearest preta pit. You’re annoying, yet I’ll be willing to put up with you.” Man it feels so good to be the one to say things like this, to be the one on top and have Aleph be the one having to take it. Despite Aleph never actually being this grouchy towards him. Ah well, this is better than being on the Messiah’s bad side, and he can relish in how the love potion has made the guy completely docile towards him, even as he’s openly insulting him and shoving him around!

So maybe this curse might not be so bad after all… but he knows that there’s something bigger to worry about, like somehow getting Hiroko to agree that, since the “real” (pah!) Messiah is now down and out, Daleth is going to have to fill in his role for him! A grin spreads across his face as he ignores Aleph now hugging both his legs. The Anti-Messiah will be no more, as now he’ll be the hero that he was born to be! Things are really looking up for him, and having a clingy, love-stricken idiot following him around is just mildly inconvenient, he can get used to this no problem!

Another win for Daleth!