Chapter Text
Asta sat in his office and flipped through a stack of paperwork that Marx had left for him. The paperwork was no joke and since taking the Wizard King role he had seen why his predecessor had spent so much time sneaking out. But he didn’t have the kind of magic Julius did so he was stuck doing the work from sun up to sun down. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. His gaze drifted to the outside world. It was a beautiful day in the Clover Kingdom. The sun was shining brightly, a nice breeze had swept over the entire kingdom keeping things nice and cool, and he could hear the sounds of the people who were out and about doing their daily tasks.
He stood up and took a moment to really view the outside world. He smiled as he saw a few families walking down below. One child pointed at the building and started to flex in front of his mother while his sister laughed and did the same back. The boy looked like he was mad. But from what Asta could tell by reading their Ki, they were only messing with each other like siblings tended to do. The sister then looked up at him and they made eye contact. Asta smiled and waved down to her which sent her into a fit of excitement. She grabbed her brother's arm and pointed up at the window. He too made eye contact with Asta who smiled and waved again. Both siblings looked thrilled to not only see the Wizard King but to also get wave from him. Eventually their mother pulled them away but Asta made sure to give them one more wave before they disappeared into the town.
“Something on your mind, Asta?” A voice asked from behind him. He turned around to see Yuno standing there in the doorway. Yuno smiled, “what am I saying? You never have any thoughts in that head of yours.”
Asta laughed, “hey I have plenty of thoughts! Being the Wizard King comes with a ton of thoughts!”
“I’m sure they do.” Yuno replied as he walked further into the room, “how is everything?”
“Good. Just putting off this stack of paperwork.” Asta said as he slapped the pile of papers, “what’s up?”
“Nothing. I just got back from Spade and wanted to stop by.” Yuno took a seat in the chair across from Asta, “how’s Noelle doing?”
Asta smiled, “she’s good. Things are good with us. It’s been weird trying to figure out a balance for us but so far it’s been fine.” Asta started to fidget a bit as he sat down in his chair. Yuno noticed it right away and he raised an eyebrow. Asta saw it and knew that Yuno knew him too well for him to hide anything. He stood up and walked over to the door and shut it quietly, “can you keep a secret?” Asta asked as he walked back over to his desk.
“Obviously I can.” Yuno replied. He smiled as Asta fidgeted a bit more, “things between you and Noelle are very good, aren’t they?”
Asta smiled, “yeah. They’re really good.”
“How far along is she?”
Asta almost leapt off the desk, “is it that obvious??”
“You asked me if I could keep a secret so I assumed that’s what it was. Am I wrong?”
Asta sat quiet for a moment, then spoke up, “no. You’re right.”
Yuno’s grin was almost ear to ear, which almost never happened, “when did you find out?”
“About two weeks ago. We haven’t told anyone yet because we don’t want to rush anything but…..but I’m excited.”
“Congratulations, you should be excited. It’s a big deal!” Yuno paused, “when do you plan to tell more people?”
Asta shrugged, “not sure yet. She knows her siblings will be supportive but my issue is that….” Asta’s eyes darted around the room.
Yuno answered before he could, “you’re not married. So you’re not sure how to tell Sister Lily and Father right?” Asta nodded. “You should talk to her about that.”
Asta sighed, “we’ve only been dating for a year. It’s way too soon to do something like that! How would you feel if someone suggested that you and Mimosa should be getting married!?”
Yuno laughed, “you? Afraid of getting married? The guy who proposed to Sister Lily for 18 years?”
“Well that!! That’s….different.” Asta sat down his his chair and leaned back, “Noelle has said she wasn’t ready to get married.”
“When did she say that?”
“It was early on. Right around when we started dating, I think.”
“So time has passed.” Asta nodded. “You guys are expecting too.” Asta nodded again. “Don’t you think it’s time to revisit that topic?”
Asta nodded. He thought about it more too. Charmy and Finral had kids shortly after their relationships had kicked off. So for him maybe it wasn’t as early as he thought. In fact, in both cases, they had gotten married pretty quickly. He agreed that it was time to have a different discussion with Noelle. He thanked Yuno for his advice. Then they spent some time catching up with each other. How things in Spade were going, how Yuno was handling being a captain and royalty, and then how he and Mimoda were managing their relationship. They hadn’t been together very long though, only a few months. It was a more recent development that had started after the two of them had gone on a mission together to stop some bandits outside of Arandom Village. Apparently they had spent more time together than expected and in that time had started to get closer.
Asta was happy to see both of them together. He knew how hard Mimosa had taken him and Noelle getting together and he knew that Yuno wasn’t usually one for romance. So to see them finding each other after all that time was nice. Their chat wrapped up a bit later than expected and Yuno had to head out to meet up with some of the Golden Dawn for drinks. Meanwhile Asta still had a huge stack of paperwork to get through. He tried asking Liebe to handle it but he refused to come out of his smaller form for such a task. Asta sighed and started working on the stack.
He worked for a while. He got through ¾ of the stack before calling it a day and heading home. Thankfully with him being the Wizard King and Noelle being royalty, their home wasn’t very far away. It took about 10 minutes for him to get there flying on his sword. It had quickly become his favorite way to get around and it was also the coolest looking (according to what Nash had told him shortly after he got the title of Wizard King).
He arrived at their front door where a Silva attendant opened the door for him. They did not live with the Silva’s but they weren’t far away. He stepped into a large lobby where there were paintings all over the walls. Paintings of Noelle in her Saint Stage battle armor, Asta in his Perfect Devil Union, and then finally one of them both after the final battle with Lucius from years ago. There were also paintings of their families including Lichta and Acier toward the end of the lobby.
Asta admired a few of them like he always did as he walked through the lobby and into a hallway. He passed by doors to their living room and a few relaxation rooms until he reached a set of stairs and practically ran up them until he reached another hallway at the top. There were windows along the walls that gave them a beautiful view of the landscape around the Clover Capitol. He walked briskly down the path until he reached the door to their bedroom. He knocked and then gently pushed it open. He saw their bed first. It was the largest bed he’d ever slept in and by far the most comfortable. To his left were all of Noelle’s items and to the right were his. Though she had significantly more things than he did so it was a very interesting comparison.
He glanced around the room and didn’t see her anywhere. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t sensed her Ki when he walked into the house. Normally he wouldn’t be worried about that. She would be out and about sometimes when he got home. But with the conversation with Yuno still fresh in his head it made him antsy. He looked around for a note of some kind but didn’t find one so he changed out of his Wizard King attire and got into some more comfortable clothing. A white shirt and a pair of black pants along with his headband was his usual choice of casual attire. Noelle had gotten him a pair of slippers too since the floors were stone and he had to admit they were incredibly comfortable and he wore them very often.
He went back down to the main floor where he and Liebe split up. He resumed his taller form which caused Asta to give him some grief since he had refused to do it earlier. Liebe went to the kitchen to grab some food while Asta went to the front door to check with the attendants to see if they knew where Noelle went.
He reached the doorway and poked his head outside. One of the attendants turned toward him right away,
“Is there something we can assist you with, Wizard King?” The man asked.
Asta took a step outside and looked around, “yeah actually. Could you tell me where Noelle went?”
“Miss Noelle? She went to the Silva estate earlier this evening. She asked us to inform you that she will return later.”
“Did she say when?”
The man shook his head, “I’m afraid not sir. But she never stays out too late so I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”
Asta thanked them and went back inside. It was later in the day already, the sun had mostly set by now and before he knew it it would be dark. He thought about going over anyway but he knew better than to just drop in on her plans unannounced. He had done that once and ruined a perfectly good lunch with Nebra. Not because he did anything specific but because Nebra was not used to him being the Wizard King and the person dating her sister. It had made things slightly uncomfortable especially after on-lookers realized who had dropped in.
He knew there was nothing to be done unless she called for him so he went into the kitchen where Liebe was arguing with the chef that was still there.
“You have the ingredients, why can’t you make it??” Liebe demanded. He wasn’t usually like that so Asta figured there had to be an issue. Despite knowing Asta was there, Liebe continued to battle with the chef, “you have every single ingredient for it! I don’t understand why you can’t bake a cake right now!”
“Why do you want a cake?” Asta asked, “besides it’s way too late for them to make something like that. It’s not like Charmy lives here 24/7. Cakes don’t just magically appear.”
Liebe turned to him, waving his arms in the air in an exasperated way, “then why the hell do we have magic at all!? If I can’t have a cake late at night then what’s the point!?”
The chef laughed at Liebe. Well not at him. But rather with him, “I see your point. Truthfully the baking materials are all here. I just simply don’t have the time to start and finish an entire cake right now. It is late after all and I must get home.” Liebe rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “But sir if you do truly want a cake I can come by early tomorrow and make one for you. Is that agreeable?”
Liebe huffed but Asta nudged him, “fine. That’s agreeable.
“Thank you sirs. Now I shall finish up my duties and then I’ll be off. Wizard King sir, the meal I prepared for you is in the oven now. I will get it out for you before I go.”
“Thank you, just let me know when it’s ready.”
The pair then left the kitchen and wandered down the hall toward their living space. There was a large sofa toward the middle of the room facing the wall to Asta’s right. In front of it was a decent size coffee table and in front of that was a large bay window that overlooked the city. To his left there were a few shelves that housed books, games, and other assorted trinkets from their adventures. Most notably was the little alien toy Asta had bought after his first paycheck. Noelle had objected to it initially but he won her over by stating that it was part of a memory they shared. She relented shortly after.
“What now?” Liebe asked, “are you really gonna ask her about getting married?”
Asta nodded, “I think I am.”
There was a moment of silence between them before Liebe spoke again,
“Why do you seem so nervous?”
“The only person I’ve ever proposed to said no for almost 2 decades. I think being nervous makes sense.”
“Yeah but she was the person who raised you. She wasn’t someone you were with like….ya know like that…” He put some emphasis on that last word so Asta knew what he meant. Though Asta knew what he meant anyway. Liebe was right. Sister Lily was more like a sister to him than anything else. He knew that now of course, ever since that day….
“Oh….” Asta said quietly.
Liebe looked at him, “what?”
“The last time I proposed to someone…..” he took a deep breath, “was right when Lucius showed up.”
Liebe paused at that. For that to be the last time Asta truly poured his heart out to someone was traumatic in a way he didn’t fully understand. But he knew that the memory was somewhat repressed considering what followed. Logically they both knew that it was unlikely for something like that to occur again. After all, how often does a mage like that just pop up unexpectedly? But the chances weren’t zero and that was the concern.
“What’re the odds that it happens twice, right?” Liebe asked, trying to assuage Asta’s fear. But the look on Asta’s face said everything. His face had lost a little color and he looked light headed. Liebe pushed him toward the sofa and had him sit down. “We can always take precautions.” He suggested.
Asta was quiet. He looked like he was between being lost in thought and being sick to his stomach. Given the subject there was a good chance the 2 things overlapped. After a few moments Asta nodded, “right. We can take precautions. No one…..no one will die this time.”
“No one died last time.” Liebe pointed out, “we lived.”
“Barely.” Asta shot back, “if it hadn’t been for Ryuya we would have been dead for sure.”
“We’re stronger now than we were then.” Liebe wasted no time giving it back, “we hadn’t truly perfected Devil Union and not to mention knowing nothing about Zetten.”
That much was true. They had gotten stronger since then and they’d learned all kinds of new ways to utilize their anti magic abilities alongside the use of Zetten. So Liebe was correct. But that still did nothing to assuage Asta’s growing fear about a repeat event occurring. Liebe did his best to help, even going to get him some water to drink and maybe splash on his face. They sat in silence for a while until they heard the front door open from down the hall. Immediately Asta knew that it was Noelle, he felt her Ki as soon as she stepped past the threshold of the door. He was hit was a mix of emotions and he felt his head start to spin a little.
“Asta? Asta are you here?” Noelle called from the hallway. Her footsteps grew closer and closer.
“In here!” Liebe called out. They heard her footsteps pick up their pace.
Noelle entered the room and saw Asta leaning over with Liebe patting his back. Her first instinct was to be concerned. He was never like this so she knew something had to be up.
“What’s wrong?” She asked as she came around the other side of the couch and sat down beside Asta on his other side, “you look sick.” She looked up at Liebe, “did something happen today?”
Liebe took a moment but gave her a small nod, “nothing big. But he’s a little shaken up.”
Noelle furrowed her eyebrow and turned back to Asta, “what’s wrong? Talk to me…” the tone of her voice was gentle and soft. It was an aspect of Noelle that Asta really loved, ever since they had started dating he heard that tone more often. He loved how it made his heart feel lighter every single time.
But right now he felt the inner turmoil and her soothing voice didn’t do much to help. He felt his chest tighten and his vision started to blur. He felt tears prickle in the corners of his eyes. His breathing started to pick up its pace with short and sharp inhales and quick exhales.
“Shit, Asta. Asta honey, look at me please.” Noelle slid off the couch and knelt on the floor in front of him. She placed her hands on his cheeks and gently brought his face upward until their eyes met. He had tears running down his cheeks now. They rolled down and hit Noelle’s hands but she didn’t move away. Asta never exhibited this behavior. But she was familiar with panic attacks from her own experiences with them. Mimosa had been there for her at those times and they had prepared her for a moment like this. “Breathe. Just breathe.” Noelle took a deep inhale through her nose and then let it out slowly through her mouth. She gestured for Asta to follow suit which he did after a moment. After a few repeated breaths, his breathing returned to normal and was able to lay back on the couch. Liebe handed him the water and he chugged it immediately.
“Do you feel better?” Noelle asked. Her hand gently ran through his hair. She wished she could remove his headband but she knew how much he loved it so it stayed on for now.
Asta nodded, “I do.” His head turned to her, a weak smile on his face. “Thank you.”
Noelle smiled back, “of course.” She continued to run her hand through his hair until he eventually fell asleep on the couch. Liebe stayed by them the whole time, silently watching.
Noelle sighed and went to stand up since her legs were starting to fall asleep. She stretched and turned back to Asta, “I don’t know how I’m going to get him upstairs.”
“I’ll do it. I can get him up there.” Liebe offered.
Noelle wanted to question what his method would be but she knew that it was better than what she would have offered. She thanked him and let him know she’d be heading upstairs for a moment but that she’d be back down shortly.
Noelle walked around the couch and toward the door. But Liebe spoke up and stopped her in her tracks,
“You’re going to be a good mom.” He said quietly. It was loud enough for her to hear it. He didn’t turn around to say it. He was staring at Asta still. But his words hit her harder than she expected as she felt a few tears start to form in her eyes.
“Thank you, Liebe.” She said as she turned and headed out the door. She climbed the stairs and wiped a few of the tears from her eyes as she did so. When she got up to their room her first task was to change out of her clothes from the day. Normally she would also shower but she had a feeling Asta would be awake by the time she got back downstairs. So she threw on a white shirt and some shorts and then slid her feet into her own slippers. She undid the braids in her hair and just let it fall over her shoulders. She considered just putting it into a bun but it felt nice to just let it fall for once.
She then returned to the living room where there was now food on the small table and Asta was sitting upright with a fork in his hand. Liebe sat beside him, also eating. She smiled and entered the room,
“Did they make me any?” She asked, “I ate earlier but I wanna know what they made tonight.”
Asta smiled at her as she sat beside him on the couch. She rested her head on his shoulder. She could see that the chef had prepared a chicken dish with a side of pot potatoes. He had already planned for the chicken dish but before she left she had requested that side specifically for Asta.
“It’s chicken, do you want some?” He extended his fork toward her with some chicken and potato on the end of it. She smiled and took the bite from his fork. She had to admit, the chef had nailed it once again.
The trio sat in silence as Asta and Liebe finished eating. Noelle managed to grab a few more bites from Asta’s plate before he finished. Liebe offered to take their plates back to the kitchen so they could have a moment alone. It took a few minutes before Noelle spoke.
“So what was that about?” She asked, not moving her head from his shoulder.
Asta sighed, “I got scared.”
“Scared? You? Since when?” She joked, “but seriously. What had you that worried?”
Asta was silent for a moment. He sighed again before leaving his head against hers, “I talked to Yuno today. He asked about you….well he asked about how we were doing.”
“I take it you told him?”
Asta nodded, “yeah. He figured it out pretty quickly but he does know.”
“Good. My siblings know too. I told Nozel first so I had an idea for how they’d react.”
“And?” Asta asked.
Noelle smiled, “they’re thrilled for us.” He could hear the happiness in her voice, “but don’t distract me. What happened with Yuno?”
“It wasn’t anything he did. Liebe and I talked and I realized that….that the last time I poured my heart out to someone, I almost died. Everyone almost died.”
“Poured your heart…..wait,” Noelle sat upright, “are you talking about marriage? Like a proposal?” Asta nodded again. “That’s what scared you?” Her tone was surprised but not in a bad way, “you’re scared that if you do it again people will get hurt?” Asta nodded again. He closed his eyes to prevent more emotion from spilling out. She leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek, “we don’t have to figure that part out right now. Right now, we have a baby on the way and plenty of people to tell about it. So we can focus on that for now and figure out the rest later.”
Asta sniffled and opened his eyes, letting a few tears roll down his cheeks before wiping them away. He smiled at her, taking in the way she looked. She put her hand back on his cheek and smiled back at him, “what do you think? We should probably tell your family in Hage first before we tell the Black Bulls?”
Asta nodded, “yeah if Yuno knows then the next people should be them. Then we can tell the Black Bulls and Captain Yami after.” He took a deep breath, “thank you.”
Noelle wanted to ask ‘for what?’ But she knew. Her kindness in that moment was what Asta needed. Truthfully she did want to be married to him. She’d seen his proposals to Sister Lily over the years and she wanted that too. But as long as he was committed to her and their future child, she didn’t mind waiting a bit longer until he felt ready.
“Of course, my love.” She said, planting another kiss on his cheek, “you need rest now.”
Asta laughed, “I know. I definitely need some rest. Do you want to head up or are you going to be up longer?”
“No, I’ll come up with you. I’ve had a long day too.”
“Which I do want to hear about, of course.” Asta replied quickly which made Noelle laugh. They sat in silence for a bit longer before joining hands and walking up the stairs to their bedroom. Well, Asta walked. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Asta had swept Noelle off her feet and carried her up the stairs. She couldn’t help but smile, knowing how much she loved him. He couldn’t stop either, knowing how much he loved her.
They settled into bed together silently. Their routines didn’t take very long and they were both very tired. Once the lights were off they laid next to each other, just sharing in each other's presence for a bit before agreeing they needed to actually go to sleep.
The room was dark. They cracked a window open so the cool night air leaked into the room, lowering the temperature a few degrees. In the cool, soft atmosphere around them only a few words could be heard.
“I love you, Asta.”
“I love you too, Noelle.”