Chapter Text
Finral Roulacase didn't want to hurt anyone or get hurt. It was what he said all along the whole, well, part of the reason he was a failure in the eyes of House Vaude. It took years in the Black Bulls, teammates, and Captain Yami, but he found something worth getting stabbed for.
In a fight he was pretty much useless, but he could still support his team, so he did. When Magna got to close to a Spade Knights magic blow, he got him out of the way. Luck started pushing towards the front lines with no back up he sent him closer to where the Bulls were. Captain Yami didn't need help, but Asta pushed his luck too much. They were just one squad sent because resources were stretched thin.
He was so tired. Exhausted before the fight really started and now, now he was more useless than usual. Spade had been trying to cross the border into Clover and there were too many small villages in the way that Spade would hurt. They didn't have any good intentions towards anyone from Clover anyway. The Bulls and every other Magic Knight squad was being called out to fight and defend their homeland. The skirmishes kept going on and on. He was losing count of which fight was where and when.
It was all rather sloppy, he didn't dodge a single knife after keeping the other safe from magic attacks. Why didn't he think before he got stabbed and portal away? He fumbled trying to slow the bleeding the Spade soldier had took the knife out and went to stab him again before Finral portaled him to the back of the fight. No one noticed he'd been stabbed which was a win for him. He would never live it down when they see it. Days of fighting and the most serious wounds weren't that bad. Luck hadn't been able to dodge a magic attack and had a burn on his right forearm. Gouche had a concussion that was easily fixed with magic. They had been remarkably lucky so far and he had to mess with that streak.
Useless Finral the one using support magic and he's the one to get a scratch. He could hear it already. He was ready for the fight to be over. Why was it taking so long? Yami needed to make it stop then he could go home to his room and sleep.
He pressed harder to his side wincing as the stab wound throbbed sharply. He wasn't done yet, he had a job to do and he wasn't out of magic. Finral decided that he would keep awake during the battle by keeping pressure on the stab wound the pain it brought was enough to keep him aware. Pain was something he'd rather avoid, but for now, it was fine. Totally fine if it kept him from passing out and he could focus enough to use magic.
When he was out of magic he'd stop. Finral found a tree he could lean against in a clearing. He portaled to it and groaned as it jarred him falling out of it. He couldn't concentrate on the pain unless it was to keep him conscious he told himself as Vanessa's thread was cut and a Spade Knight went in for the kill. He portaled her right behind him and she got the drop on him. She was safe. It might be cowardly to hide and not be in the thick of it, but Finral never was brave. He watched portaling Black bulls out of danger while slumping against the tree on the outskirts of the fight. Noelle had her back turned to an attack so he portaled Asta there so they would watch each other's backs. He watched for a few minutes as they fell into a rhythm. He wondered why they hadn't started out like that. It made sense to fight in pairs and Asta and Noelle were comfortable with each other.
Finral felt the familiar emptiness and overall wrong feeling that signaled he was getting low on magic power. He sighed, he really was a lightweight in a fight. Finral felt the siren's song luring him into the blackness of pain, blood loss, and bone-weary exhaustion that had been there well before the fight. He was sorry he had only this to give to his squad, he really hoped they didn't leave him when the fight was over. A faint smile crossed his face, Yami wouldn't leave him. He wouldn't find anyone else who would portal him to the bathroom.
Vanessa smiled ferally looking at the battlefield they were victorious! She still was on high alert the adrenaline still coursing through her veins. She slung an arm around Yami, "Not half bad for the worst of the worst? Another battle won by the Black Bulls!" What was left of the Spade soldiers were running away or were too injured to flee.
"Not bad, but this was the longest fight this week," Yami said unhappily pulling a cigar seemingly from thin air and lighting it.
Luck bounced to where they were, "Have you seen Magna? I can't find him."
"He was over by Gray last time I saw him," Vanessa replied as she started doing a headcount of all the Bulls.
"I need help!" Noelle yelled from the opposite of where Luck ran to. Vanessa and Yami went to the sound of her voice and found Asta was beaten and bloody.
Yami inspected the young boy before saying, "He needs a healer. Finral! Where are you?"
A happy, green-clad twenty one-year-old didn't come bounding to the sound of his Captain's voice, didn't even make a sound to reply. "When was the time someone saw a portal?" Yami growled out.
"I don't know. It's been a while I know he was watching my back all but the last portion of the fight," Vanessa said scanning for the spatial mage.
"Asta was portaled to me when the fight was almost over," Noelle said not caring to hold back tears that had began to well up in her eyes.
"Noelle, stay with Asta. Vanessa fan out and look for Finral," Vanessa nodded and started to yell for him looking among the bodies and scanning for her friend. Yami went in a different direction enlisting Gouche, a limping Magna, and Luck in the search for their teammate.
"Finral's probably just hiding out. This is the fifth fight in four days he's had enough," Gouche said wiping a swath of blood of his forehead.
"He isn't like that," Yami replied blandly. "Get to looking for him we need to Asta to a healer."
The three of they went in search of the spatial mage. Yelling his name and looking for him around the battlefield. Vanessa's cry alerted them to where Finral was it was a shout filled with horror and desperation, "Yami! I found him come here!"
Yami broke into a run to the tree line and found Vanessa desperately using her thread magic to fashion a bandage for the bloody stab wound Finral had managed to get. Yami picked up the younger man's wrist and found a thready pulse. "He's alive." He hissed when she saw the coagulated blood surrounding him
"Why didn't he portal to one of us and let us help him?" Vanessa said as she tore his shirt off to get a better look at his stab wound. It was worse than what she was expecting the blade had to have a jagged edge to do that much damage. "He needs a healer worse than Asta," Vanessa mumbled to herself fixing the bandage she made tightly to Finral's wound.
Yami nodded handing Vanessa the communicator as he picked up Finral not struggling in the least with the younger man's weight.
Vanessa opened the communicator and immediately called the capital Marx didn't answer until the seventeenth ring, "What took you so long, Mushroomhead? Don't answer that. I need an immediate evacuation from the Clover/Spade border. Finral and Asta are injured and need medical attention. I don't care who you have to pull or from where if you don't get someone here within the next five minutes I'm stringing you you up by your testicles from the nearest tree," Vanessa said and with that hung up on him.
Yami didn't blink at Vanessa's very graphic threat held Finral close to him not liking the way he wasn't reacting to anything. All the Black Bulls gathered together ready for whoever came for them. It was exactly three minutes and Langris Vaude came out of a familiar swirl of a portal. Vanessa smiled despite the dire situation. Mushroomhead was on the ball today.
The Vice-captain of the Golden Dawn was rather quiet as he swiftly got them all the infirmary. People were rushing around they already had their hands full with injured mages. Yami carefully laid Finral on the medical bed he was directed to by a nurse. It was just so wrong to see Finral so still. Yami didn't like how his head lolled when he set him down with more care than he ever thought possible. Magna and Noelle were supporting Asta who had regained consciousness and was looking around confused at where he was. Noelle had calmed down by this time and was content to know that was being taken care of and wasn't in any danger.
Vanessa waited in the hallway with Langris; surprised that he hadn't already left. From what she knew about Langris he was always was so derisive of those he deemed lower than him. He'd certainly made it clear that Finral was 'lower' than him whenever they crossed paths. She was just waiting for him to say one wrong word and she would straighten him out.
"How did it happen?" Langris asked quietly.
"He was using his magic to support us and then he was just gone. It was after the fight that we realized he wasn't there anymore. I found him on the outskirts of the clearing with a really bad knife wound. I don't know what happened exactly, but it wasn't his fault," Vanessa said sticking up for Finral hackles ready to raise at the wrong word.
"That sounds like my brother, support magic. He always was better at protecting than he ever was at fighting," Langris said before continuing. "I never hated him. Not really, he was everything I wasn't. He never treated me like I deserved."
"That's Finral for you. He didn't treat anyone like they deserved, he always was good to everyone. That's why we love him, well, one of the reasons we love him," Vanessa said as Yami came out of the medical ward holding a familiar green grimoire and covered in blood that wasn't his. He was followed by Noelle and Magna with their expressions trying to be braver than they felt.
"Asta's going to be fine," Noelle said, "The knucklehead just got a concussion and flesh wound that bled like crazy."
"What about Finral?" Vanessa and Langris asked simultaneously and then looked at each other in slight disgust and worry. They looked back at yami for answers.
Yami didn't answer right away the tall man put a hand on Vanessa's shoulder, "They said he might not make it, Mimosa is going to do what she can for him. She said that he's lost a lot of blood and the knife nicked at least two organs."
Langris let out an undignified gasp. Vanessa felt like someone sucker punched her and she couldn't breathe anymore. Finral was supposed to run away if it got too dangerous. He was always the one that got them out of situations that were more than they could do on their own. Finral always sent them back up when they were overwhelmed in a fight. He was not the best in a fight, and a hopeless flirt, but that was their friend.
Finral was the one that was always there for her.
He couldn't leave her.
Finral couldn't die.