a heart don't forget

walk me home in the dead of night

"Uhh..." Laughing a touch nervously, Flora raises a brow. Itching her fingers through her curls, the queen runs her tongue along her teeth before deciding that of all the people she might tell this particular bit of history to, Asta likely won't say anything. Well, not to anyone except for Danta. "So...my friend and I were up in Hak Etme and there were all these weird bones that came to life." She explains, sidestepping a clump of still smouldering grasses.

"Things...got a little bit hectic, and...you know that thing you all can do? Where you hurt yourselves to try and hurt others?" Glancing over her shoulder up at the butcher, Flora's eyes narrow at the flash of sunlight that streaks across the dark opalescent sheen of his horns. "So, Maea did that, and...killed herself. She almost killed someone else at the same time." The casualness in Flora's voice likely suggests that she either really hates the ancient, or there was more to the story.

"And I mean...much as I don't really like her, I figured I couldn't just leave her like that, so.." Twitching her lips, the Doubletaken glances up at the butcher again, wondering if he'd think that in fact she really could have just Maea. Maybe if Flora had heard the nasty things the ancient had said about the butcher sooner, she would have. "So I brought her back to my dad, and he brought her back to life."

reaching for a book of matches
strike a light and then you'll see the real mess that i am

Hearing the shift in Flora’s tone, it snags his attention much quicker than anything else so far — and as he walks, uncaring of the smoldering grasses he’d burnt down, the butcher's dark gaze lingers on the Doubletake as the story spills from her lips. His tail sweeps low, waving some of the smoke away, nodding to her in confirmation. “Bloodbane.” He gives her a name for it for no other reason than maybe she’d like to know.

And then he’s struck with the realization that he didn’t know she had bloodbane. Bloodboon, he did, because she’d used it on him. But when she continues and says she died and that Flora had brought her back to life, the still strange panic addled mind of Astaroth’s doesn’t know what to do with the information.

Except laugh.

A deep and bolstering sound rumbles from his throat, shaking his shoulders, paired with a too sharp smile that nearly makes his cheeks ache. “Gods.” What else was there to say? “I’m sure that gave her more fuel for her bullshit.” The woe is me, victim mentality that Astaroth is so tired of hearing after he’d tried so hard to bring her into the fold. He’d been burned, badly enough that he realizes suddenly that he doesn’t even care that she’d died again and come back.

Astaroth

i swear it's nothing personal - i swear it's nothing personal //////

walk me home in the dead of night

Tucking the name away, Flora nods her silent appreciation as she finishes her tale, only to turn wide-eyed toward the butcher. The sound of his laughter isn't something the queen has ever really heard before. He'd laughed and chuckled in her presence, but actual laughter? It was a sound that had her smiling instantly in response before she too was swept away in the ridiculousness of it all and found herself laughing right along.

"I don't know. My dads were taking care of her—" This was said with no small amount of animosity as if Flora was offended that her parents could possibly like someone that she found so annoying. "—but then I dunno. I don't think she's still in Torchline or I'm sure I would have seen her." It was a big region, yes, but there was no way fate would keep her and the pale ancient apart if Maea had decided to lurk on Torchline's shores while she licked her wounds.

"But I'm pretty sure if she got herself killed again, I'd know about it. She reached out to Remi when it first happened, so...I bet she would again." Shrugging, the queen glances up at Asta and smirks. "So..yeah."

reaching for a book of matches
strike a light and then you'll see the real mess that i am

It’s a reverberating sound, one so rarely heard from his lips, and one that in spite of everything does make him feel better. That, and hearing the chime of Flora’s own laughter alongside his. The tension in his shoulders loosens momentarily, the smile fading as he listens and regains some semblance of a composure (still nothing compared to usual), and when Flora mentions that Ronin and Remi had been taking care of her… well somehow it just makes Maea’s behavior make that much more sense.

“No wonder she’s been insufferable, if she can just go and complain to two of the strongest people in Caido. Maybe she doesn’t feel real consequences.” He doesn’t hide the slight bitterness in his tone, nor the way he rolls his eyes, glancing down toward Flora with the ghost of the smile still on his face. “Maybe it would save me the trouble.” He drawls, shrugging a shoulder in a way that makes him appear more willowy than he otherwise would.

But he looks back down the path as it starts to sprout into different roads, small houses populating the fields around them. “She’s banned from the Inner Quarter.” He offers, as if it made more sense why she may be laying low.

Astaroth

i swear it's nothing personal - i swear it's nothing personal //////

walk me home in the dead of night

"Honestly," Flora agrees with an exaggerated sigh. Maybe she really should have just left Maea to die on the sands; it wasn't as if the ancient had been trying to do anything heroic, or you know, helpful. Maybe when the queen got back to Torchline she'd have a little chat with the Knight about just what sorts of situations best called for the use of his magic. At least in the future, it would give Flora an out for not dragging someone back to Torchline with her to be saved.

"Ahhh." Banned from the Inner Quarter wasn't the Grounds, leaving Flora to believe that for whatever injustices Maea had committed against Asta, Danta wasn't willing to fully play the Theocrat card.

Walking silently for a few moments, her eyes taking in the rather charming countryside, Flora exhales softly through her nose. "Hey Asta?" Glancing rather shyly at him over her shoulder, the queen smiles slowly, resisting the urge to shuffle her steps in order to nudge him with her hip. "Do you think we can just...put all of this behind us?" The things he'd done, the things she'd said.

reaching for a book of matches
strike a light and then you'll see the real mess that i am

What’s done is done and that’s truly all that can be said about it. Maea had been avoiding him, and he hasn’t sought her out. He’d much prefer to keep it that way, all things considered. But she isn’t here right now – instead, there’s Flora at his side and himself in a strange mixture of partially losing his mind only to regain part of it because the Doubletake can also handle his panic attacks better than he’s experienced.

So they walk, he tries to keep the twitchiness out of his limbs, dark gaze impossibly darker as he scans the buildings they walk past as if waiting for something to jump out at them. Gods, what he wouldn’t give to have someone something to sink his teeth into right this second.

Her question distracts him from those darkening thoughts, though, head swinging toward her with little of the grace he usually held over himself to see the shy look and the slow smile, and a crease forms between his brows as they pinch curiously. And her question feels like golden sunlight against the dark inky void of his rampaging thoughts, and he tilts his head before he nods. “I’d really like to.” He admits nearly immediately. “I do still want to be your friend, Flora.” Your shopping partner, your guildmate, a bloodstained shadow to help you should you ever need one. He just can’t be her lover.

Astaroth

i swear it's nothing personal - i swear it's nothing personal //////

walk me home in the dead of night

There's a moment between when Asta's head tilts and he nods that feels as though it stretches out for far too long. In that space of just a fraction of a second Flora's mind has time to wonder what sort of fool she has to be in order to misread the situation with the butcher so badly again. But then he's nodding, and the queen's relief is palpable as her smile turns shaky and her shoulders fall away from where they'd bunched up by her ears.

"Yeah?" Hope has her lips parting in a tentative smile that eventually grows and blooms out across her face. "I'd really like that." She admits her voice a touch shaky with relief. "I think we could be good friends." Great ones, one day, when the queen was able to fully erase the memory of his mouth against her skin or the way his large hands had felt corsetted around her waist. When she could see him for the man he was rather than the one she'd so desperately allowed herself to believe he was.

"I don't want things to be awkward with Danta either." She hums softly, glancing up at him as the Inner Quarter comes properly into view.

reaching for a book of matches
strike a light and then you'll see the real mess that i am

It’s an odd mix to have, between the butcher’s cracked façade to allow her to see underneath – the way his accent warps differently, more harsh and more brash, more akin to the cannibal beneath than the polished exterior he intends everyone to see. But, given the current situation with the gore crows, he thinks he’s allowed to have a little bit of a back and forth. Even if it makes it more difficult for Flora to read him.

But the sentiment is the same – that he does want to be her friend and that they could do good things together – something of which has a small smile forming on the corners of his lips, less sharp and a touch more genuine as it’s reflected in the cool dark voids of his gaze. “I think we could be good friends too.” He agrees wholeheartedly. And maybe one day she’d understand the other underlying reasons as to why he’d kept her at an arms length, but for now? This was good. This was better than it had been over the last few weeks, and he does feel relatively better about it.

Enough that when she mentions that she doesn’t want things to be awkward with Danta, either, Astaroth has to bite back a laugh that sounds more like a rough hiccup than anything else. “Danta will be fine.” He reassures her, shrugging obviously enough that the open waistcoat billows in the rogue wind chasing down the alley of the Inner Quarter as they step through. “Half the time I don’t think he knows what awkward feels like.” Flashing her a too sharp grin that still has a hair of violence underneath, it seems almost softer than it had been when they started the trek here.

Astaroth

i swear it's nothing personal - i swear it's nothing personal //////

walk me home in the dead of night

Raising her brows at the sudden rough bark of laughter, the queen's eyes trace the olive contours of the butcher's face for any signs of malice or upset. Seeing only what had been lingering there since they'd begun their walk, Flora hazards a low chuckle of her own. "Yeah, that's probably true." She agrees, her voice soft but affectionate. Danta could probably sell ice to Halo if there was something in it for him, all while dangling upside down and threatened with spears. Based on the slivers of darkness she'd heard of his past, the Doubletake wasn't sure how he came by his roguish charm so easily, though she'd never thought to question it.

"Speaking of, I assume you probably helped him collect the bee that I needed for my quest?" Aside from their dates, Flora had never seen the butcher without the Maverick by his side, or vice versa. "Thank you."

Coming to a fork in the road, one of which would lead down to the little boutique bar Flora was set to meet Danta at and the other to the Dusklight, the queen paused, smiling up at the butcher. "Despite how today started..." The surprise, the anger, the terror. "..I'm glad for it how it ended." Reaching out to give his arm a soft squeeze, the queen turned to go.

"See you around?" She hoped it wasn't a question.

~FIN