Asta made his way to the Black Bull’s hideout at his own pace, so it didn’t take him long to walk in before someone was yelling at someone else for something they did or didn’t do. He looked over and saw Finral slumped over in the fetal position with a steady stream of tears rolling down his face. Captain Yami, on the other hand, was sitting in his usual chair but with a burst of mocking laughter coming from his biggest face hole as tears under his eyes.

“I was dumped…” Finral whined.

“Hahahahahahaha! I don’t believe what’s more surprising! The fact that Finral had a woman discreetly slip away or that the runt and Luck actually got lucky with women who were interested in them! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Yami belted.

Vanessa sat on her usual couch in her underwear as usual, with her head on the back of the couch as she nursed her usual hangover. “I don’t see what’s so hard to believe, captain,” she chided. “If you get past the fact that he’s a little bloodthirsty, Luck’s actually a decent catch for any lady. And Asta,” she thought, “He’s a bit loud and can be a little dense from time to time, but he’s a pretty good guy who's there for his friends and family when they need him. The fact he played a major role in saving the city helps, too… Oh, my head….”

“I’m sorry, wino, but I’m with Captain Yami on this one,” Magna added still confused himself, “I mean, I get Asta, but Luck?! How in the ever-living infernos of manliness does that little lightning bug get a chick to like him, let alone actually start a relationship with him?!”

Gordon was just staring up with the biggest fucking creeping toothiest grin someone with his face could ever for the love of god make.

Charmy was stuffing her face at the table, as per usual, and Gauche was staring at a picture of his little sister Marie with a steady nosebleed, as per the usual. The only ones missing were Luck and Noelle.

“Luck must still be with his girl,” Asta muttered to himself as he scratched the back of his head. Nero soon flew down and landed right in her usual spot on top of his head, “Oh, hey there, Nero. Have you seen Noelle?”

The bird just stared and blinked once before flying to her usual spot in the hideout rafters.

“I’ll take that as a no then,” Asta sighed. “I hope she’s alright,” he said before turning to head out the door. He pulled it open and came face to face with the aforementioned water mage.

“Oh! Hey, Noelle,” he smiled, only for the girl to turn her nose up at him and then swiftly march past, knocking him in the shoulder.

“Watch where you’re standing, peasant!” she shouted before rushing off, thoroughly pissed.

“Okay, she’s pissed about last night,” Asta sighed.

“Yeah. Of course she would be, after she went to watch you with another girl, and you called out to her, knowing she’d been watching the whole time,” Finral called out in anger before returning to his depressed whining.

“I should go talk to her,” Asta said as he went to go but was stopped by Vanessa’s string magic.

“I think you’d best leave her be for now, kiddo,” the witch said, “It may be a little your fault in knowing she was there, but it's mostly hers for going. Let her sort some of her feelings out first, then talk to her, okay?”

“Alright,” Asta huffed, “Hey, Captain? Got any missions?”

“Yeah,” Yami said still laughing, “Once Luck gets back, you and him can go clear a dungeon! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

A few days later…

Asta was in the woods, training in the usual clearing in the woods outside the Black Bull’s hideout. Currently, he was practicing his sword and breathing techniques. He was taking the steps well beyond what he took in his youth, in order to recondition his body for the coming fights ahead of him. His fight with Fragment had left him with a particularly nasty taste of defeat in his mouth. A loss he could take, but a loss to someone who wasn’t even putting forth any real effort into a fight was something that didn’t sit well with him at all, and then, there was the fact he was just a sociopathic bastard of an asshole.

Asta swung his sword down hard and sent a slash of air out, clipping off a low branch from a nearby tree. He took a second to look over to the area where Noelle generally used when practicing with her water magic. It was noticeably dryer than it had been in a while.

He let out a sigh and went back to swinging his sword.

In another part of the forest that not many used stood Noelle, as she used her magic to try and create some sort of projectile before shooting it at a target strangely shaped like Asta’s face.

“Stupid, stupid stupid stupid!” she shouted as she fired blast after blast of water at the target, “STUPID ASTA!” before she finally destroyed it.

She stood there huffing. “Why’d he have to go and call out to me out like that?” she said, with tears welling up in her eyes.

“So, so this where you’ve been practicing,” came a calming female voice.

Noelle took a second to dry her eyes before she looked up and saw Raava standing before her.

“Oh... Hey, Raava,” Noelle said, looking away sadly, “Aren’t you supposed to be with Asta?”

“Just because I share a bond with him that doesn't mean I have to be with him at all times,” Raava explained, “I am here because I wanted to check on you, my young water bender.”

“Water bender?” Noelle was now thoroughly confused.

“You are one whom can control, produce, and manipulates water,” Raava said as she extended her hand and used her power to pull some of the water Noelle had made to float above her hand into a ball. This shocked the water mage even more, “In the lands we hail from, those who can do this are called benders, but they do not do this through the use of magic but rather through the use of their Qi. The skill is not limited to just water either, but all elements. The four most basic ones are water followed by fire, earth, and finally air. I can use them all.”

Suddenly, many of Asta’s other feats made much more sense to her, “So, Asta can use the elements without magic…”

“Yes, and my presence further augments his power to do so, but on his own, he is far more than capable of putting on quite the display of power as you are aware. Even more so when wielding the elements,” Raava said, as she blew on the water ball, and it turned into ice, “Asta is a unique case, too, in the fact he can wield all elements, while most can only bend a single element, along with some variants branching out from it under certain circumstances.”

“Why are you hiding here, instead of confronting him about this issue?” Raava abruptly asked.

Noelle hesitated, “I… just don’t know how to face him right now. He knew I was there at the restaurant, and he even acknowledged me as he left with that girl… I just don’t know… I just don’t know what to feel or think about what’s between us…”

“As long as you’ve known him and after knowing what he can do, is there really any reason to not expect that boy from knowing you were there?” Raava asked.

“I guess you’re right about that…” Noelle sighed as she held her arms, But it really hurt though… Seeing him leave with her and him acknowledging me as he left. The pain of him knowing I was watching them...”

“It sounds to me that you are jealous, young one,” the light spirit said nonchalantly.

Noelle looked right at the spirit, thoroughly put off by Raava’s directness.

Raava just smirked. “If you weren’t, then why’d you follow him to the mixer in the first place, Noelle?” she narrowed her gaze, “I’ve been helping you with your magic a lot lately, and very rarely do you not ever look at him when he’s there or think about what he’d do in a similar situation.”

“But… but… but if I was j-jealous, then that would imply t-that I…”

“Love him, or more than like him as a friend, at least,” Raava implied, “Because you do, young one. I have been around for many millennia and have seen many forms of love in that time between my hosts and those they call their lovers or those around them who fall in love with others. It may not be love, but you do deeply care for him more than just as a comrade or friend.”

“Okay, so maybe I do like the idiot more than just a really good friend,” Noelle looked in both directions as she quietly spoke, “But, it's not like he’ll…”

“Act on it. He would if you put forth the effort, like Rebecca has,” Raava said sternly, “You should know that Asta and Twilight aren’t in this land by choice, Noelle, and he has done his best to make as few connections with others as possible; only interacting with those he needs to and doing so in a way that will help them grow and grow as people, to grow stronger for when he and Twilight must depart.”

“Wait, what?!” Noelle stopped her, “They’re going to be leaving?! When?!”

“There are things he keeps to himself, but as of now not even I or they know that for sure when that will be,” Raava said looking up, “Just that they will be for sure in the future, as they have those who are counting on them to return to them from whence they came. It’s why he tried not to get entangled with you girls too much, but not even he could stop the red strings of fate and love. Even he has grown to care for you girls very deeply.”

Noelle’s heart felt a bit more at ease, hearing that.

“Even now, he’s worried about you, even pausing every now and then to check your usual training spot, to see if you’re near,” Raava smiled. “Why not ask him out on a date, and if you’re still not sold by then, just ask him outright how he feels about you girls and maybe even try and have him tell you a bit more about himself as a person and where he’s from? And I swear on the waters of the sea that I won’t tell him anything about this,” she said, placing a finger over her lips with a wink.

The two of them giggled.

“I’ll think about it, okay?” Noelle said, “I still need to think on some things…”

Raava gave a single nod.

“Thanks for talking to me,” Noelle smiled.

Rava smiled before walking back into the forest and fading into the light of the sun.

“Now, back to practice,” Noel remarked with a renewed resolve. She looked over to the ball of Ice Raava had made, “I wonder if she’d teach me… Or maybe Asta…”

Later on that evening…

Mimosa was sitting in her room at her desk. She was currently very flustered, as she stared at the scroll she’d placed on the desk. Coming up here and getting everything out was the easy part and talking herself into doing so seemed to be easy, but once all was said and done, she got cold feet.

“Come on, Mimosa!” she silently cheered herself on, “It's not that hard! Just write a quick something and ask him out!”

She grabbed her quill and dipped it in the ink. She held it above the paper in the upper lefthand corner of the scroll.

She was now shaking uncontrollably.

“Um…ah….” she mutters, “Maybe I should just hold off on asking him out…”

She set the quill back in the inkpot and leaned back in her chair, “Why is it so hard? After all my big talk to Twilight and encouraging Noelle, now I can’t even send him a letter!”

She then heard a tapping at her window. Looking over, she saw a mail owl with three letters in its beak. She got up and opened the window. “You’re sure delivering late,” she laughed as she took the letter and gave the owl some feed for its late-night trouble, before returning to her desk.

“Let’s see,” she said, “One from Twilight, one from Noelle, and one from Asta,” just then, one could’ve heard glass breaking, “I think I’ll save the last one for later, once I’ve calmed down a bit more. Twilight’s letters are often rather thick and time-consuming, so I’ll do her’s after Noelle’s. Family first, after all!”

It didn’t take Mimosa more than a few minutes to read the letter from her cousin, and it lit a fire in her belly.

“She admitted it!” She giggled. “Though it was to Asta’s contracted light spirit, at least she’s moving forward. What else is there?” she kept reading. Soon, her eyebrow was twitching, “A mixer?! Rebecca…. Oh, yeah. That girl Twilight told me about! I’m starting to think our dear Asta has a knack for girls that he isn’t aware of,” she said with a little twitch.

“At least Noelle acknowledged her feelings,” Mimosa hung her head and looked over at her desk.

“Let’s see what he sent me and depending on how flustered it makes me….” she said and started to read and her face turned bright red.

The Black Bulls’ Hideout…

Asta was busy doing a handstand in his room as Raava sipped tea while sitting in the corner.

“So, you went and spoke with her?” he remarked to the spirit, “Is she alright?”

“She’ll be fine,” Raava said, calming his nerves a bit. “She just needed someone older and wiser to speak to and help her sort out her heart, with the problem you created,” she said sharply.

“Yeah. I figured that.” Asta looked off to the side, “That was a dick move on my part. I’ll have to make it up to her…somehow…”

“Just make sure to make time for her like the rest, as best you can,” Raava added, “Have you heard from Mimosa?”

“No, but hopefully, she’s free tomorrow,” Asta pushed off and landed on his feet, just as there was a knock at his door. Raava threw him a towel, “Who could that be?”

He opened the door. “Luck?” Asta raised an eyebrow at the smiling teen.

“Hey, Asta,” Luck held up a hand, “Ya got a sec? I need some advice.”

Asta raised an eyebrow, “Ah… sure. I got a few to spare. What ya need?

“Dating advice,” Luck said with a gleeful bluntness.

Asta just stared for a full minute while Raava sipped on a cup of tea behind him.

“Ah… don’t you think Finral would be the better one to go for this sort of thing?” Asta pointed out the obvious.

“Not really,” Luck said with a happy coldness, “He flirts with just about any pretty lady he sees so shamelessly and is always shot down. You actually have girls that want to go out on dates with you, so the choice for good advice was obvious.”

“You can’t really argue with his logic on this subject,” Raava pointed out.

“You got me there,” Asta rubbed the back of his head, “Wait, is this for that Helene chick, from the mixer?”

“Yep,” Luck smiled. “She's really pretty, and I really like being with her. It's kind of like when I’m fighting, but a lot quieter. Ever since we cleared that dungeon, I’ve been able to enjoy other stuff, outside of just fighting, and this is something I really want to work out for me. So, please,” he clapped his hands together and bowed his head, “Advice?”

“Um… just be yourself, dude,” Asta said, “Take her out and to a place that you two might enjoy as a couple…. Ah… yeah, cut back on the fighting. That’s good for you. If they insult you and she’s with you, just try and walk away, but if they don’t and get in your face, then-”

“Make them all bloody!” Luck happily laughed.

“Only if you can’t dissuade them, dude,” Asta rolled his eyes, “Now, if they insult your girl or try and make you, or especially her, do something she’s not comfortable with or the way they speak to her, then go nuts.”

“Okay. Thanks a whole lot, Asta,” Luck laughd. “See ya later,” he laughed as he ran off.

Asta waved with a smile before shutting his door.

“Well…” Asta sighed with a smile while rubbing the back of his head, “That was… unexpected, to say the least…”

“Indeed,” Raava nodded while sipping her tea. “But a positive note that the boy is putting forth an effort to see there is more to life than just fighting, and it’s very reassuring that he’s making a conscious effort to have a relationship with that young woman,” she set the cup down, “Speaking of, about Noelle, would it be alright to teach her water bending?”

“I don’t see the issue with it,” Asta shrugged, “But why?”

“Hmmm,” Raava hummed, then picked up her tea to sip more, “Don’t you have a letter from Mimosa?”

“Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me,” Asta said, walking over to his desk and opening the letter to read its contents. “She said yes!” Asta smiled, “I better get my stuff ready for tomorrow.”

“Don’t forget you need to apologize to Noelle, too,” Raava reminded him.

“Hmmm…” Asta thought, “I wonder if she’d like to go out?”

“Only one way to find out,” Raava pointed to the door.

“Yeah. I won’t put it off,” Asta groaned before heading out of the room.

He was only gone a short time before a lot of noise was heard, followed by crumbling walls as rushing water. Several more minutes passed, with a lot more crashing and banging, followed by more crashing and banging. It all came to a head when there was a single loud boom and shaking, with a large dust cloud from the front of the building.

Raava simply sipped her tea. “I think I’m going to miss this a little once we go back home,” she giggled, before looking down to spot a soaking wet Asta sitting next to Noelle, getting scolded by their captain. “At least they made up,” she smiled before returning to her tea.

Next Chapter: Best Laid Date plans and Futures Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours