Chapter Text
Asta's head was spinning as he and Yami headed out of the interrogation room. That a Magic Knight captain had turned traitor just for greed... the things he'd confessed to under Marx's spell... It made him sick. Asta hoped that whatever the Wizard King had asked to see Yami for, it was better news than this.
But when they passed by the rubble where Nozel and Charlotte had grabbed stones to go after Gueldre, Yami paused. He glanced at the wreckage, face impassive. Asta was about to ask what they were stopping for when Yami's ki suddenly spiked. It gave Asta a split second warning before Yami's fist lashed out, smashing another section of the wall.
Asta stared. Yami had kept his cool through the entire interrogation, even joking that Gueldre was black-hearted enough to be a Black Bull. But now his ki felt barely restrained, a wire pulled taut and about to snap. “C-captain…?”
In a low, cold voice, Yami said, “That shitty ham put his hand up at Finral’s exam.” Every muscle was tense. His eyes were piercing, fixed on something only he could see.
Asta froze. He wasn't a genius like Yuno, but even he could get where a portal mage would be useful to a smuggling operation. The list of Gueldre’s abuses against his own squad flashed through Asta's head. The threats, blackmail, and bullying he'd used to keep his members in line as he'd forced them to become criminals. Alongside it ran bits of memory from the last few months.
Finral. Easily distracted by a pretty girl, no stomach for violence, hated confrontation. Friendly, kind Finral. Who, like most of the Bulls, never mentioned any kind of family or friends outside the squad.
...No, Asta didn't need to be a genius to see how badly it would have gone for Finral in the Purple Orcas.
Yami slowly lowered his arm and turned toward the stairs. His voice was normal again when he said, “Keep up. Don’t keep the Wizard King waiting, idiot.” But there was still a tension to his movements, a deliberate weight on each step, and Asta followed in silence. Something felt... off.
Wasn't this normal, though? The first thing Yami had ever said to Asta was a threat to kill him for bumping into him. And since he'd been with the Bulls, Asta had discovered that Yami lost his temper all the time. This wasn't even the first time Asta had seen stone give way to Yami's irritation. It was a really good thing their base had magically regenerating walls.
And yet.
It was hard to look at old memories and try to gauge them with a sense he'd only picked up recently, but Asta tried. The magic knight exam. Yami getting the squad's attention at base by bashing a wall. His annoyance when the squad slacked off. On the surface, this was the same, but underneath, it felt like-
“What the hell do you think you're doing to my magic carpet?”
That. The instant after Yami blocked the shot Licht aimed at Finral's back. The look in his eyes, the feel of his ki- it was the same, or close. None of his property damage around the base had felt like that.
When Asta had first joined the Bulls, he'd actually wondered if Yami and Finral got along at all. Finral had introduced every single Bull with the addition of 'but they're a good person' except Yami. Yami called Finral useless while using his powers for everything under the sun. They argued- or, usually, Yami said something and Finral made cheerful commentary that Asta only realized later was actually kind of insulting.
‘I don’t give guys jobs they can’t do. Do something about him in your own way.’
But now that Asta was thinking about it, Yami wasn't the kind of guy to keep someone around that he didn't respect. And Finral was-
-was everything Asta had just been thinking about, but not around Yami.
Even in the exam arena, flirting and distracted, he'd turned right back toward Yami when the latter had grabbed Asta. He was a self-proclaimed coward, but he didn't flinch when Yami punched walls right next to his head. He was always conciliatory with strangers, but he talked back to Yami despite the guy's killer aura and habitual death threats. He'd even apparently taught Yami how to dance, though Asta still couldn't picture that one.
And then there was the fight at Nean. When Yami had told Finral to use the last of his magic to open a portal behind Licht, Finral hadn't been happy, but he'd done it without hesitation. And right before Asta had struck, when Licht was about to blast Yami...
Finral had screamed Yami's name. Thinking back, he'd done it before, too, to warn Yami about Vetto, even though that had drawn Vetto's next strike straight at him. That wasn't really something you'd call cowardly.
Captain Yami and Finral... they actually...
By the time Yami stepped back out into the sunlight, the sense of tension had dissipated, though he took a long drag on his cigarette as Asta caught up. As they headed toward the Wizard King's office, Asta finished the thought.
They actually care about each other a lot.