[Training] burn butcher burn

when I was a child I heard voices, some would sing and some would scream

Danta's arm winds around Asta in turn, slipping casually into his back pocket as if his palm and his fingers hadn't been torn to ribbons only a minute or so before, and as they duck out of the Temple into the last of the daylight, he sighs out a long, relieved breath. Not just to put some physical distance between them and what had happened, but also that it's finished and over with, and the Maverick nods his ready agreement at some peppermint bark to add to their cocoa. Easier now to think of pleasant and mundane things, at least until his subconscious gets its say later on in the night.

"...I think I'd like to go home," he says after a few beats, surprising himself with his own decision. This had been a different sort of shock to the system compared to Asta's haunt, and the familiarity of the space they'd built together seems more necessary tonight than preserving its peace. "That way we don't have to get up too early tomorrow, either."

Which, depending on how much sleep Danta gets, a late start might be another necessity.

He shakes those thoughts away for now, though, brightening up a bit as they hit the cobbled streets, able to see light spilling from the window and doorway of the bakery. "Will you growl at people if we sit and eat? We can get everything to go if you prefer."

The Maverick

you soon find you have few choices, I learned the voices died with me