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On a random Tuesday night in Calvard, a particular person of interest walked into this certain solutions office situated on the edge of Edith; one that has quickly risen to fame for their exploits in recent years.
His hair dark as the midnight skyline that, when reflected in light, glittered quite strongly; his eyes? A lighter shade of black, one that's not necessarily brown nor grey but more a mix of both with purple-ish blue accent. His face? One that tells a story; one look is enough to understand that he went through some shit and is still working through processing said shit. Looking back at his eyes they were soft and gentle, one appropriate for an educator yet there was something distinct about them: an air of emptiness which resounds loudly to one with enough skill discern the person poor attempt at masking his sadness.
'Hey! we're closed for the night, if it's really that urgent come first thing in the morning' The blue haired Spriggan expressed his annoyance clearly to the supposed stranger right in front of him as he continued to mumble to himself as he laid on his precious couch trying to get back into reading whatever magazine he picked up on his way back from his nightly patrols.
'I heard that.'
'No you did not '
'I assure you.... I did unless you want me to repeat what you said out loud?' The dark haired haired individual repeated with a concerned, yet unphased look. 'Ugh now you're pissing me off' Van starts to sit up and move to look who's standing in front of the door as he continues speaking, 'who do you think you a-'
('Another tachi wielder huh, fuck )
'Oh, you've been eyeing my tachi for a little bit now uhm, is there any concerns?'
'Oi, don't tell me you're another one those freaks? What sort of hell are you gonna make me go through now?? Don't tell me, let me g-'
'What are you talking about.' The other man crosses his arms and slightly raises his voice as to be loud enough for only Van's ears and to not to wake anyone else up his dominanting voice still resounds in the other man's eardrums. Van stood there dumbfoundedly feeling almost as if he's back in Aramis and is getting reprimanded by his teacher for slacking off on class.
(You know what scratch that I feel like he's somehow worse than Shizuna) Van thought to himself just to make sure he won't be caught by that unclouded eye or whatever it is they have.
'I'm guessing you're thinking something among the lines of 'ugh how can he be worse than her '
'What..?'
'It's not all that surprising actually it's all over your face really' the stranger laughs a little to make this situation a little less awkward for them both, though it seems to piss off the person infront of him a bit more.
'What you some sort of teacher or something? Why'd you be here at a time like this don't you have better things to do?
'Yes I am an instructor at a military academy, you remind me of one of my students, actually'
'Great' Van's more passionate expression died down a little only for it to display one of annoyance mixed with a little tiredness.
'Oh? Did I say something wrong perhaps?'
'No it's just too late for all this we can both agree right, anyways I suppose if you tell me who you are I guess I can put you on the priority list tomorrow and we'll deal-'
'Rean schwarzer' Van starts to look up at the man standing right behind with quite a suprised expression that turned serious fast.
'Mhm suppose you are quite early, guess you got something important to ask?'
'Nothing much really' this got Van to raise his eyebrow.
'Ah yes very believable thank you saviour of all of zemuria'
'(Why do I get the feeling that's not praise at all-) ' Rean thought to himself and continued 'let's go somewhere more private however, it feels like I'm being watched by many curious eyes' Van scoffed at that comment 'sorry 'bout that, let's move outside I know a place we can chat'
'Oh actually, a place nearby has caught my eyes as I walked to your office' Rean exclaimed excitedly as they walked down the stairs into the street'
'Oh?'
--
'Ah so it seems you do have some redeeming qualities after all'
'?? But yeah I truly do love hot baths a lot; it's such a sacred place for me to gather my thoughts'
'YOU GET IT!!!'
'For so long have people told me that I'm just doing too much, that I need to be act more my age and stop being so passionate about the simple things in life that makes you keep going.' Van continued with a very excitable grin that is very infectious as Rean also started to smile uncontrollably.
'I haven't met anyone this into hot baths for a looong while; even my parents aren't that crazy about it despite running the most touristy hotspring spot in erebonia'
'Wait you mean like THE hot spring resort in Ymir?'
'Haha yeah, I'd be more suprised if you didn't know actually!' Rean excited took more control of the conversation
'Although I haven't been born there I spent almost all my life there, it's the best at winter when you're in the outside baths, as much as it sounds silly it truly is the best thing to do to combat the chilliness'
'Ah don't worry I can imagine, I already love going to the baths when it's very cold out I can just imagine how truly life changing taht experience would be' Van let out a loong passionate sigh.
'Suppose we aren't that much different from each other than I first thought back then'
---
'Hey, you know what that means.'
'We follow right?'
'Of course little one! Absorbing my oh so great teachings so well I see' the red head lets out a big grin and raises his hand for the younger girl to jump up to hit it back.
'This pair is rather concerning I think' Quatre sighed, looking up to the elder turquoise haired girl higher up the stairs, 'sadly he has a point.'
Risette couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, 'glad to see you all in such high spirits this late'
'For fuck sakes Risette you NEED to stop hanging around Van you are starting to sound just like him'
'My, maybe he has been' Risettes face stayed still for a while pondering at what he said, she decided to just disregard it as just one of those ''Aaron remarks''.
'I doubt it, the only thing I've been doing was his tax returns, alone...' her voice turned uncharacteristically annoyed, maybe a little scary even? Like she just realised something. Aaron wasn't that sure but he knows damn well he should've push that thread of questioning.
'ANYWAYS how does this chevalier guy even look like?' Feri cut in, her question garnering both Risette and Aaron's attention as the latter started to smirk, like an older brother telling his younger siblings a horror story right before bedtime. 'All I know is that he has deep black messy hair and bloodshed red eyes. And I've also heard he lost control over his disturbing power quite a lot of times....I mean how else did he cause that whole erebonian shenanigan back then and not talking about that war but the weird curse thing uh great twilight was it?' Aaron spoke in a daunting tone just to make feri a little scared and regret staying up till past midnight. 'I-is this true?? Fie told me he's a really nice gu-'
'You'd do anything to defend your friend right? See it as that little one.' Aaron still not speaking in his usual tone locking eyes with a dead serious facial expression; one lacking any emotion.
'Okay seriously that's enough Aaron it's getting ridiculous' Quatre quickly shut down whatever the older red head is saying, visibly annoyed and bored.
'According to Marduks data on the Ashen Chevali- Divine Blade, whatever Aaron said is not necessarily wrong, however it is definitely a bit exaggerated'
'Yeah we don't even know the guy personally but didn't he help stop it?' Quatres eyes narrowed more to make it seem very obvious he's being judged harshly by not one but 2 members of the office.
Aaron couldn't help but laugh.
'I know those two have met the guy before but guess it's too late to ask. Hell wishing Shizuna was here- that would make this shit 10x more funnier'
--
'Oh for fuck sakes man'
The group abruptly stopped walking before reaching the station.
'Do we even know where those 2 even went at this time of day' Feri was the first to speak up after they've stopped, looking confused at the group as they all seem to forget that they failed to follow some of the sneakiest men in Zemuria.
'2 geniuses in this circle yet we still fucked up'
'I blame Aaron.' Quatre was the first to speak up.
'Me too' Feri quickly followed while giving Aaron a heavy stare.
'Ouch... well whatever at least I know Risette got me tho,' he nonchalantly spoke and looked at her prompting that she'd at least try to defend him.
'Aaron, unless you have a good idea as to where master Van might be by the way you speak, please do not hesitate.'
'You're way too good at this.'
'Well it's my job is it not, but please, enlighten us'
'Well I think most of you have already figured this out because what other place does he like to go on days like these?'
'The bath house right?'
'Yupp you got that right little one why don't you lead us there then.'
'right.'