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The Black Bulls were a chaotic squad. Charlotte Roselei, like every other captain, magic knight and even citizen of the Clover Kingdom knew that much. What she ignored was just how much of a chaotic family they were outside of work.
Yami and Charlotte had been dating for about a month now and their respective squads hadn’t been notified yet. Charlotte knew it was bound to cause an uproar in her squad. She wanted to tell the knights who had helped her get there, but she knew full well that telling one of them would get everyone to know in a matter of hours… Well. Hours. Hours if Charlotte was giving her knights the benefit of the doubt; realistically, every single Blue Rose would know in minutes and in hours, maybe a quarter of the Golden Dawn and half the Coral Peacocks would also be aware and Charlotte would get a call from Captain Dorothy and/or William inviting her over for tea which, everyone knew, was where most gossips were shared.
Because of the Blue Roses well known gossipy nature, Yami and Charlotte had decided that they would be telling the Black Bulls first. And this was the night.
So now, Charlotte was standing awkwardly next to Yami as all pairs of strangely docile and silent Black Bulls were staring at them in anticipation. It felt weird how, as Charlotte looked at them, they all looked so much younger. Like children waiting to hear some news. Some were smirking at them as if they knew already, others were just waiting for the meeting to be over, others were entirely unbothered. But all of them were quiet and that truly was a strange sight. Then again, having two captains stand right in front of them must have some silencing effect.
Finally, Yami broke the silence.
“So yeah, Prickly Queen and I are together,” Yami said unceremoniously before lighting up a cigarette. “That’s all.”
The Black Bulls were still silent. Now, Charlotte couldn’t say she knew all of them very well, but that silence wasn’t normal. That silence was concerning. Then, at last, someone spoke.
“About damn time,” Zora said.
“You didn’t have to hear him pining every time we grabbed a drink,” Vanessa noted as she grabbed the bottle she had temporarily put down.
“You two didn’t have to wait endlessly because he was ‘getting ready for a captain meeting’ for three hours when it used to take him five minutes,” Finral said in a sigh.
“You three knew?” Yami asked.
“Yeah,” they chorused.
“Actually we made bets,” Finral said. “You both owe me ten.”
“No, I don’t?” Vanessa said. “We don’t know since when they’re together?”
“It’s been a month now,” Yami answered.
Zora groaned before searching his pockets and dropping some yuls in Finral’s open palm. Finral turned to Vanessa, waiting, but the witch just shrugged, “You’ll have to wait for my next paycheck, Fin’.”
“We’ve just had our paycheck,” Finral pointed out.
“As witches say: don’t spend tomorrow what you can spend today.”
“This is… No, Vanessa. This is not how you handle a budget,” Finral said.
“Yeah, that’s a dumb saying,” Zora snickered.
“I’m sorry but?? I wasn’t aware??” Noelle shouted.
“You spent six months training in the Heart Kingdom together with exactly the same problem and you didn’t even mention it once?” Finral asked.
“Unlike you, we were a bit busy,” Noelle said with a shrug.
“I was working very hard too!”
“You were bumping your head on walls, Finral.”
“That was part of my training!”
Charlotte stared at these bickering squad members, trying very hard to find the serious and training-oriented people she had spent six months with in the Heart Kingdom, until, suddenly, she felt someone creep up on her and the aura was so sinister she almost reached for her grimoire.
“Welcome to the family,” the knight Charlotte identified as being a member of the Agrippa family muttered. “I will make a doll for you, Captain Charlotte.”
“Nah, please don’t, Gordon,” Yami said casually as if nothing was wrong with the situation. “Your dolls are creepy.”
“Captain, have you told her about Marie? We need her to know about Marie.”
“Nah, I don’t think she’ll care about your sister.”
Regardless, the man approached her, took out a picture from his breast pocket and started talking about his very cute little sister and how she was an angel, and the light of his life and… Charlotte stopped listening and tried to focus on something else, for example how close the witch now was to Yami, visibly begging him for something.
“Can we party now? Champagne sounds appropriate.”
“No. You are not getting hammered tonight, Vanessa.”
“Is she staying for dinner, la?”
Yami raised an eyebrow, looked down at Charmy and turned towards Charlotte who hesitated briefly before nodding.
“What’s your favourite food? I’ll get your favourite food, la! You can tell a lot about someone from their favourite food.”
“We can finally fight, then?” Luck said excitedly. “We didn’t get to fight in Heart but now we can, right?”
“No, you’re not fighting anyone,” Yami said, his hand grabbing him by the head and lifting him up off the ground. “Go sit down, zappy kid.”
“Would… you… like… a… room… for… you… in… the… hideout…?” A tall man with impressive hair length asked.
“Nah she’d be staying with me. Don’t bother, Henry,” Yami said.
“Maybe I have a word to say about this?” Charlotte said.
“Captain! She’s getting a room?” Magna asked suddenly.
“It’s a squad transfer?” Nero asked.
“Oh! Are we making her a Black Bull robe?” Vanessa asked.
“Are we having an initiation ceremony?” Magna shouted.
“Initiation! Initiation!” Luck started shouting from the other side of the room.
Until they somehow most of them started chanting ‘Initiation’ and clapping in rhythm. Charlotte had no idea what this ‘Initiation’ consisted of, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.
“She’s a captain,” Noelle shouted above the chant. “She’s not switching squads.”
“Noelle’s right, not switching squad, and no Black Bull robe,” Yami answered.
Now, Charlotte just admired how calmly he dealt with his squadmates’ antics. It was hard to follow and keep track of everything they were doing and saying but he was answering every single one of them calmly, patiently, and he looked so at home with them... it was heartwarming. She was still trying to understand why exactly they were so convinced she had to join the Black Bulls when she felt someone grab her arm and pull her aside, “I can help you.”
She turned, only to find Nacht, the Vice Captain of the Black Bulls.
“You can still avoid this,” Nacht explained calmly. “It’s not too late to run.”
“Run… why?”
“From Yami. No one would ever want to be with Yami. Clearly you’re being held against your will. I can help you escape.”
Charlotte blinked a few times. She was getting ready to answer when the witch, strangely, saved her, passing an arm around her Vice-Captain’s shoulder and leaning into him as she poked his cheek with the neck of a wine bottle, “Stop harassing Yami’s girl!”
Vanessa turned to her, “Don’t mind this grouch, love. He’s a buzzkill.”
“And running from Yami’s weirdos too,” Nacht said with a strained smile, completely ignoring his squad member but still sounding annoyed. “No one would ever want to deal with these morons. Yami is anything but worth… this.”
“Awww come on! You love us...”
Now, Charlotte was admittedly a little surprised, because Nacht was usually very serious and now he looked... a little more laid back. Slightly. Maybe it was just an impression, though.
“Yami is distracted, it’s now or never,” Nacht pointed out with a seriousness that clashed horribly with the bottle neck pushing through his cheek and just how bubbly and tactile the witch was next to him.
“I’m not—” Charlotte started before being interrupted by the whizzing of a spell flashing right past her. It took a few seconds for Charlotte to realize that 1) they were inside 2) the crash she had just heard sounded like a wall had been destroyed 3) she had been a hair breadth from being hit with that spell. She concluded that she could not let her guard down.
“NO FIGHTING TONIGHT.” Yami yelled at Luck and Magna.
That, surprisingly, calmed them down. Nacht took advantage of the distraction to slip away from the witch and go stand in a corner.
“Are we sure we shouldn’t have an initiation ceremony?” Asta asked.
“You just don’t want to be the rookie anymore!” Magna said.
“Liebe is the rookie now!” Asta argued.
“Liebe joined when you did,” Noelle noted.
“Nero—”
“Same,” Noelle retorted.
“You—”
“My joining this squad was also decided earlier than you.”
Charlotte watched as Yami was answering questions, scolding a few troublemakers, even cracking a few laughs. He always talked about his squad with a fondness in his voice that Charlotte barely ever heard. They were his people, his most important people, and she knew just how proud he was of them and how much they counted for him. He had washed over Clover shores alone and had struggled to find his place, so Charlotte suspected that by gathering all these misfits and giving them a place to belong, he was giving back everything he felt like he owed. Or maybe he just felt like helping them. Or maybe he just didn't felt like being alone. Charlotte had also seen with everything that had happened with Spade that Yami counted equally as much for them; if not more. And this bond... definitely felt like family. Or at least, what family should be. With a little more chaos than required.
“Food’s ready, la!” Charmy said.
“C’mon, grub’s up!” Yami said, grabbing Asta and Luck by their head and pushing them to the table.
This wasn’t a squad.
It was a chaotic family.
Yami turned towards her, an eyebrow raised, "You're coming?"
"Sure."