Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Oh, Kazuma," Aqua sang out as she stepped into the mansion's living room.

A quick glance around showed no signs of the adventurer, but from this vantage point with the couch facing away from her, she assumed the boy was just lazing around in front of the fireplace.

Aqua called out his name again as she approached the sofa, figuring that he was just ignoring her. And, of course, he was. Peering over the back of the couch, she looked down at Kazuma's back, as he had his face pressed down into a cushion.

"Did you die again? I told you to stop sampling Wiz's weird potions, you know liches can't really be trusted," Aqua kept going with her teasing only to be cut off by a mumble from the face down teenager.

"What do you want, Aqua?"

She paused. And waited. After an uncomfortably long silence, he lifted his head from the pillow.

"I said what do you want? I don't really feel like doing this with you today," he said, letting his face fall back down into the pillow.

This alone was not enough to make Aqua worry, but this had become Kazuma's new normal. He wasn't fighting back against her constant barrage of teasing, nor was he doing any teasing of his own to her. She couldn't even remember the last time he'd yelled at her about spending too much eris on pointless things. It could have been days.

She blinked, pursing her lips and standing up from leaning over the furniture. Was Kazuma… depressed?

She stepped around the couch to kneel in front of it, studying the boy, but not gathering much from the back of his track suit.

"Did Darkness and Megumin go somewhere? They'd better not be questing without us."

He lifted his head.

"Explosion practice." Another soft thump as he let his face drop onto the pillow again.

Now this was a strange development. Explosion practice was always Kazuma and Megumin's thing. They went off, Megumin blew something up, and then Kazuma rated the display of spellcasting before hauling Megumin's helpless butt back to Axel.

Unless he was feeling particularly lazy, then he'd reverse drain touch some mana back into the girl's body and make her walk back on her own power.

But this was strange. Usually if Kazuma said no to Explosion practice, Megumin just skipped a day and made him make it up to her the next day.

Aqua sat back on her heels, thinking to herself. As much as they fought, she really did care about Kazuma. They'd been through enough together that she considered him her best friend, despite everything.

But even then, most people who saw the way they interacted with each other would compare them more often to an old married couple than two close friends. It was a fair assessment, but it really wasn't the truth. At least, not from Aqua's point of view.

She wasn't repulsed by Kazuma like she tried to tell everyone who would listen at various times, but nor did she harbor any romantic feelings towards him.

In fact, Aqua had yet to really get a grasp on the whole "romance" deal, but she figured that to be fairly normal for a goddess ripped out of heaven to accompany a reincarnated teenaged boy in his quest to kill an evil overlord in order to win back a normal life.

Not that any of that could really be considered normal, now that she though about it.

But now she was getting distracted. Aqua pulled her eyes away from the ceiling where her spiraling thoughts had been located and looked back down at Kazuma, his body still buried face down on the couch.

Aqua felt that they were close, and hoped Kazuma felt the same way, but they never really got personal. Most of their lives in this new world had been questing and getting in to more trouble than they could handle, not talking about their feelings. That previous lack of communication is what made it so awkward for Aqua to find the right words here.

"Kazuma, is something wrong? You seem… down." She stretched her legs out on front of her, leaning to the side and resting against the arm of the couch.

Kazuma hoped he hadn't visibly flinched at the question, because internally he definitely had.

Did Aqua pay attention to stuff like that? Or was it so completely obvious that even she could tell? After giving it some thought, he rolled over, finding himself face to face with the blue-haired girl.

To Kazuma's surprise, she looked genuinely worried. She didn't even look like she was about to insult him. He blinked. And then rolled back over, burying his face into the cushions again. He grunted.

Aqua sighed, and pulled away from the couch, sitting back on her heels.

"Well, do you want to talk about it?"

Another long pause.

Kazuma lifted his head up one last time, just long enough to deadpan "no," and that was that.

She stayed with the boy a few more minutes before deciding that clearly no progress was going to be made today.

Her only hope was that she had laid the groundwork for him to open up to her soon.

Chapter Text

Megumin made her way down the hall, Chomosuke held at almost chest height in the crook of her right arm.

She paused in front of Kazuma's door with nervousness obvious on her face, transferred all the way up her body from the nervous steps she had been taking before.

Any day where she'd get to practice Explosion was usually enough to make Megumin wake up in a good mood, but things had been different lately. More specifically, Kazuma had been different.

When Megumin had first started asking the older boy to help her with her Explosion practice, he hadn't been thrilled. The walk out to a good spot, watching the powerful spell wreak havoc, and rating the display were all okay in his book, but when it came to carrying her back, well… he could certainly complain with the best of them.

At least, that's how it had started. Megumin liked to think that he didn't mind it so much anymore. He still grumbled, but he didn't yell at her over it like he did Aqua and her spending habits. In her mind, Kazuma and her were better friends now, and he saw her as being at least semi-useful. There was some measure of respect between them.

She reached up with her left hand to lightly scritch Chomosuke behind her ears, the nervousness on her own face slowly morphing into a frown as she started walking down the hall and away from the door.

Kazuma's changes started slowly. The first of these that Megumin noticed was that he had started complaining about carrying her back to town again. And not just the teasing sort of banter that the whole party engaged in, but actual legitimate complaining. And that had escalated into the boy sometimes using the Drain Touch ability that he had learned from Wiz to siphon mana back into her prone body and then forcing her to walk back on her own.

Eventually, that progressed even further and Kazuma had start cancelling on her on consecutive days. He had been apologetic at the time, promising to make it up to her, but that hadn't ever happened.

Megumin gently sat her familiar down on the couch in front of the fireplace, taking a moment to pamper her with some love and affection, before turning and heading towards the mansion's front door.

It was when Kazuma had started becoming outright dismissive of her that she had become really worried. Sure, he could be temperamental sometimes, and he often took teasing her and the other girls too far, but he really was a big softie at heart. So for the boy to start treating her this way, she knew she had done something to mess up.

What exactly that was, she couldn't figure out. But a different possibility she had considered is that he'd just finally tired of a nearly useless arch wizard constantly requiring his help after just one spell.

Megumin picked up her manatite staff from where she had leaned it next to the door before she had attempted to ask Kazuma to come with her today.

Explosion was amazing, but maybe it had finally worn out its welcome.

Chapter Text

Aqua poked her head around the door frame leading to the kitchen, spotting Kazuma slouched over what she assumed was a cup of coffee and confirming her suspicions.

He hadn't been in his bedroom, and she had heard Megumin leave earlier, and correctly assumed that Kazuma had once again not gone with her. The arch priestess gently stepped around and in to the kitchen, careful to not announce her presence with her boots on the tile.

Pouring her own cup, she sat down across from the boy, trying her best to put on a happy-but-not-overbearing attitude.

"Good morning, Kazuma," she almost sang out.

He deadpanned, not bothering to look up, "How much is it this time?"

Aqua blinked, staring at the top of his head for a few moments before dropping her gaze to her own cup. A few sips later, she began nervously fidgeting with the handle of the mug.

"I wasn't trying to ask you for money, Kazuma," she answered, looking back up at him, trying to study him and see if she could glean any information from him.

But he didn't do anything, not really. He sipped on his coffee, and continued to stare down.

Aqua doubted that this early in the morning was the best time to ask Kazuma about how he had been feeling, but she had been struggling to get alone time with him over the past few days. Either he had been out of the mansion, she had, or Megumin, Darkness, or someone else had been around.

The other problem is that he just hadn't been talkative. Any time she had gotten a chance to strike up conversation with him, he'd just assumed she needed money, or was there to nag him about something or another. It almost felt like that's all he considered their relationship to be.

Thinking about that, strangely, hurt Aqua's feelings a little bit, so she didn't like to dwell on it, but she did consider it.

What she hoped was the truth was that he just wasn't ready to talk about whatever was bothering him, and that she was okay with. At least for a little while longer. She hoped he would open up sooner rather than later, if only so she could do something to help disperse this dark cloud that seemed to have settled over him.

Without speaking another word, Kazuma had finished his cup of coffee and was now rinsing it in the sink, the sound of the running water interrupting Aqua's thoughts. She sighed, watching him leave the kitchen, before letting herself lay over onto the table, her arms stretched out above her head.

As flighty and graceless as Aqua could be at times, she was still a goddess, despite no one in this world acknowledging that, and it was in her very nature to not enjoy seeing others suffer like Kazuma was. So to see this happening up close, instead of from her old heavenly perch, and being unable to do anything about it? It didn't exactly put her in a good mood herself. She had to figure out something to do to help her friend.

The bell hanging over the door chimed, and Megumin stepped into Wiz's shop.

"J-just a minute," she heard the lich call out from the back room, a hint of distress in her voice.

The young arch wizard clutched her manatite staff tighter to her chest, slowly stepping forward into the darkened shop. She'd come just when the shop usually opened, so she wasn't surprised that Wiz hadn't quite been ready for visitors. Stopping near the counter, she looked around, peaking behind shelves, trying to find Yunyun. Satisfied to find no sign of her fellow Crimson Demon, she let out a sigh of relief and turned back to the counter, waiting for the lich to come out.

After a few moments and more than enough sounds of things crashing around to make Megumin worry, Wiz came stumbling out of the back room looking slightly disheveled.

"Oh, Megumin," the lich's worried frown began to turn up into her normal shy smile, "I'm so sorry for making you wait. How can I help you to make up for it?"

Megumin's narrowed gaze shifted back and forth from Wiz to the door to the back room, a single raised eyebrow asking a silent question.

Wiz raised her hands flat in front of her, waving to try to reassure the arch wizard, "it's really nothing. I was just startled by the sound of someone entering the shop so early, and knocked over a few empty potion bottles. Now, really, what can I do for you?" she asked, carefully stepping around the counter and clasping her hands together.

Megumin's silent questioning faded into nervousness, her fingers tightening around her staff, and then the nervousness transitioned to determination, the young girl clearing her throat and flourishing her cape out behind her.

"I, Megumin, daughter of Hyoizaburoo and Yuiyui, and foremost arch wizard of the infamous Crimson Demon clan, beseech thee, detestable lich, to instruct me in your most unholy ways!" she finished, manatite staff held high above her head, and her right hand covering her right eye.

There was an uncomfortably quiet pause, Wiz blinking as her gentle smile faded to a slight frown again, the lich wringing her hands in front of her lap.

"Um, Megumin," she started, "it's not that I don't want to help, but, I don't quite understand. You want me to teach you something, but I suppose I don't understand what exactly that is."

All of the enthusiasm dropped out of Megumin's face, and her gaze lowered to the stone floor of the shop. Weren't these grand speeches, and the mannerisms and attitude that accompanied them, what had gotten her in to this trouble in the first place? She shook her head, steeling her resolve.

Kazuma didn't want or need a one trick mage. He wants a capable and flexible arch wizard that he can proudly proclaim is a member of his party.

She looks back up at the lich, all pretenses dropped.

"Wiz, could you please teach me some basic and intermediate magic?"