—/<3/—
"yuno!" elle shouted from across the garden, waving her arms in the air like a madman to get his attention.
it had been nearly a month since the incident with licht and the third eye in the mountain, yet yuno and elle had barely seen each other. both of them were busy with their own missions, paperwork and training, however they did manage to meet up to eat dinner together in the cafeteria or spar for an hour or so each week.
during their time apart, yuno had realised his feelings. though he promised himself he would never act on them. he couldn't help but feel insecure. he was just a boy from the forsaken realm, whereas she was soon to be queen, they were total opposites. how could he ever confess knowing that?
little did he know, the amethyst-eyed princess was in the midst of figuring out her own feelings for him.
today was one of the rare days that they both had a day off, and since their friends were busy, they decided to spend the day together.
just the two of them.
or three.
"who are you and why are you stealing yuno from me?" a little voice nattered from her place on yuno's shoulder as the tall boy approached the young princess.
"you managed to unlock it?" elle asked, mesmerised by the little sylph that was perched on her friend. yuno nodded.
"hello lady sylph, what's your name?" elle questioned excitedly, edging closer to yuno so she could get a better look at the small spirit.
"hmph, i'm belle, the wind spirit. and who might you be?" belle didn't like the fact that there was such a pretty girl who was close friends with yuno but she sure didn't mind that the girl was paying attention to her.
"i'm elle novochrono-kira, the next queen of the clover kingdom. let's be friends belle! will you show me your magic?" watching as the sylph flew off of yuno's shoulder and hovered in front of her face instead.
yuno just watched the whole ordeal. it wasn't a lie to say that he was baffled that belle was getting along with someone—a girl at that—but he wasn't mad. yuno had only met belle around a week ago but he had already worked out that the sylph had a crush on him, and she would stop at nothing to make sure all other girls stayed as far away from him as possible.
but now belle was conversing with elle as if they were long term friends?
"i'll get yuno to show you what we can do later. he said we were going into town with his friend today and i assume that's you. so let's go!" belle perched herself onto elle's shoulder this time, shocking both of the humans, demanding that they went somewhere with cakes since she wanted something sweet.
"let's go then yuno! it's been a while since we've hung out!" elle chattered, patting his upper arm lightly and walking ahead, getting along with belle just fine.
—/<3/—
"yuno the star festival is soon, are you excited?" elle linked her pinkie with his as they kept their eye on the sylph that was flying from store to store in wonder.
"what's the star festival?" he asked, turning his head to look at the girl beside him.
"hm? you haven't heard of it? it's a fun festival with games and snack stalls, and the wizard king announces the squad and individuals who've earned the most stars. everyone is there and it's so much fun!" elle chirped, eyes lighting up as she recalled the previous festivals she's attended.
"the golden dawn will win." yuno said. his face showed no emotion but his tone of voice showed his motivation.
"of course we will. we win every year~" elle smiled, taking her eyes off belle for a second to look at yuno, who was already looking at her.
"you like that bakery over there don't you? let's go buy some sweets. belle would like some too" yuno looked away, the brief eye-contact between the two momentarily making his heart beat faster.
"you remembered?"
"i have a good memory."
—/<3/—
"the golden dawn will be dispatched to the town of kiten. it's on the border near the diamond kingdom. it is rumoured that a few of their shining generals will try to invade, along with their squads so we have to be there to stop them and protect the citizens of the town. myself and vice captain langris will be there too, so if you have any worries please come to us." william announced to his squad members.
the golden dawn was currently gathered in the main hall of their headquarters as their captain gave them their orders. today, they were to go on a mission as a whole, to protect the a village in the forsaken realm that sat on on the border of clover and the diamond kingdoms.
elle was excited. it has been a while since she had been out on the field, having been holed up in her palace completing paperwork on behalf of her uncle. adrenaline rushed through her body as she skipped over to klaus, mimosa, and yuno, smiling brightly.
"wanna head over together?" she asked them, eyes shining and raring to go.
"ah, klaus and i were planning on heading over with alecdora, but you two should go together!" mimosa stuttered, pushing klaus away from the two before elle could question why she was acting so weird.
"there's three of us!" belle shouted over angrily, shaking her tiny fist in their direction.
"why's she acting so weird..." elle mumbled, moving her hair so that belle could sit comfortably on her shoulder whilst she took yuno's hand and pulled him outside to where mimosa and klaus had disappeared.
belle silently fumed in jealously over their handholding but she chose to keep quite after seeing yuno hold back a small smile.
"dont worry about grabbing brooms, i'll fly us with my wind magic" yuno said, giving her arm a tug to stop her from walking.
"i'm pretty sure that guy over there is taking us with spatial magic yuno..." elle chuckled, looking back at him before beginning to walk again. "and even if we were travelling in pairs, using your wind would drain too much mana and you need it for the fight against the diamond mages."
"oh" yuno said. he was screaming at himself on the inside.
'how embarrassing' he thought. he was trying to be a gentleman and this spatial magic user messed it all up for him.
—/<3/—
so far, so good.
elle had taken down a few mages, including a general and restrained them in her golden spheres of time. they floated behind her, trapped in time, as she followed the mana trail to where she could feel her comrades fighting a shining general.
she followed the trail down an alley before ending up in an open space, a few people gathered there including yuno, belle, mimosa, klaus, the general that uses electricity knocked out on the ground, presumably by yuno and... the black bulls?
why were they here?
"asta, charmy, finral!" elle waved, smiling brightly "why are you guys here? i didn't know this was a joint mission."
"captain yami brought us here to help so we're evacuating the citizens!" asta greeted the princess, obviously not waving since he broke both of his arms during his mission in the underwater temple. elle nodded, accepting his reasoning before walking over to her three squad mates... plus belle.
"yuno! i watched you and belle fight in the sky! you were so cool! you used a new spell! can we spar when we get back? please? i want to see the spell again!" elle babbled excitedly. yuno looked uninterested, though she really had his undivided attention.
"you have a new spell too don't you? i'll only show you mine if you show me yours." yuno replied, looking from where klaus was scolding asta about his broken arms to where elle was stood next to him, smiling at him hopefully.
"yuno, elle, stay nearby to asta! i'm sure he can't fight like that." klaus sayid as he and mimosa boarded his steel chariot.
"please take care asta!" mimosa waved as they took off.
"where are they going? i wasn't listening..." elle admitted rubbing the back of her neck bashfully.
"allow me to explain, your royal highness," finral cleared his throat, getting down on one knee with flushed cheeks and taking her hand.
but he didn't even get to open his mouth.
yuno blew the older boy over with his wind and softly pulled elle over to him by the waist, keeping his arm around her as he spoke. "they went to heal the citizens. elle stay away from gaudy guys like that. they're nothing but trouble."
yuno looked at finral coldly, causing him to panic and apologise before scrambling to his feet and taking his place behind asta.
"asta, the fact that you're so beaten up means you've gotten stronger again, havent you?" yuno smiled. and oh my god it was a beautiful smile.
elle found her heart beating faster the longer she looked at it, so like any sane person, she looked away.
"you've gotten stronger too you bastard! i'm not going to lose to you!"
"are your arms okay?" yuno asked, the smile still hadn't left. belle was blushing, as was charmy. elle was better at hiding it but she was a mess internally.
"of course they are! see!" asta laughed, moving his arms around in their slings.
"you're still as reckless as ever" yuno laughed too.
'oh my god, he laughed...'
elle couldn't take it anymore. she turned around to face the diamond mages that were trapped in time whilst yuno introduced belle and yuno, only to find that one had escaped. not only that, but it was the shining general with the red clay magic that she had defeated earlier. she felt around for his mana and it seemed he had gone to the top of william's world tree.
'ah it's okay. william will defeat him'
just to be sure, she tightened her spell around the current mages she was holding. she couldn't be responsible for anyone else escaping.
she turned back around just in time to see charmy and belle fighting... with their foreheads. they were shouting about winning yuno's love or something. yuno, asta, elle and finral stood watching them, sweatdropping.
it was then when langris showed up, dragging the last of the three generals behind him.
"well look what the cat dragged in...my older brother!" langris chimed, a sarcastic smile on his face as he walked across the roof of a building, hopping down to be level with them.
"what's a black sheep that can't even fight doing here?" langris provoked, leaning forward with a smirk.
"finral, who's that rude little twerp?!" asta questioned.
"he's my little brother, langris vaude, vice captain of the golden dawn."
"so you're still the pack mule of the black bulls i see." langris belittled, looking down on his older brother despite being shorter, "looks like i'll have to be head of the vaude family, since you're such a loser!"
"get over yourself! finral's awesome! at the underwater temple, it was only because of finral's help that i could defeat the third eye! how can you talk to your big brother like that you punk?!" asta shouted, he was getting worked up again.
"it's fine asta, he's right." finral chuckled awkwardly, stopping asta from walking towards langris.
"the enemies have all been taken care of so we don't need the bulls here. more importantly, when did the black bulls become a day care?" langris joked. who knows if he expected people to laugh with him but he didn't seem bothered to be the only one laughing.
the guy on the cloud had woken up amidst the bickering, sending an attack towards langris which he easily avoided. elle prepared her grimoire, readying a restraint spell.
"oh dear... you're still alive? not only that but at this rate my spatial magic is going to hit those civilians you managed to gather..." langris raised his grimoire "oh well, you'll just have to be noble sacrifices to the clover kingdom."
before anyone could react, elle was in front of langris, the sound of a slap resonating in the air as she stared at him coldly.
"you dare kill my people because you're too lazy to think of a plan? your behaviour makes me question your worthiness to be the vice captain of the top squad." elle chuckled m dryly and langris glared at her angrily, a hand raised to hold his red cheek.
"how could you even think of abandoning citizens?! we're magic knights!" asta agreed with the princess, his eyes were narrowed as he yelled at the vice captain, the bird on his shoulder seemed as if it were glaring too. "i'm not abandoning anyone! finral, charmy! back me up!"
"roger that!" the two bulls shouted.
"just you watch, yuno!"
"let's see what you can do then."
asta charged backwards, forcing himself against the cotton charmy had created, and he was sent flying towards the slime-covered enemy. he disappeared into finral's portal just before the enemy attacked him, reappearing above him with his anti magic sword clenched between his teeth. just one touch with that sword and the enemy's magic disappeared, the citizens falling to the floor as the enemy attacked again.
asta went through a portal once more, emerging right in from of the general and slamming him into the wall. knocked out clean. asta was caught by yuno's wind.
"the black bulls will beat the golden dawn!" finral shouted at his younger brother.
elle smiled approvingly at the black bulls' attack method, skipping back to yuno and belle.
"well now that's over, let's clean up and head back. there's no need to pursue those who are fleeing." elle clapped her hands together, smiling from ear to ear. "langris, make sure you restrain that guy this time."
elle bid them a goodbye and walked towards the big tree where her brothers were at, yuno followed after her after telling asta not to eat things off the ground for some reason that elle didn't know.
there was no way they could climb something that big so they just waited at the bottom, the mages elle had captured still floating behind her. she didn't know if she was to release them of if they were taking them as captives.
"i wonder what they're talking about up there..." she spoke to herself, sitting on some rubble.
"aren't you two embarrassed to be seen with the black bulls?" langris asked, approaching them with that same smirk on his face.
"why?" yuno asks "i've never thought that once. asta is my rival and i'm proud of him."
langris laughed. "that guy is your rival? seriously? what are you even competing for?"
"we're both working to become the wizard king"
—/<3/—