The Black Bulls base was quiet this morning, Asta and Noelle sleeping soundly after dealing with the gossip going around about them. Their routines were back to some level of normalcy as well, Asta started with the daily chores. Running around the base cleaning everything, naturally stopping to wish everyone good morning as well wake Captain Yami. Noelle got dressed and started eating breakfast, making sure to protect a plate of food for Asta from Charmy. Luck and Magna would start a fight, Vanessa would start drinking too early and Gauche would be creepy off in his own corner of the main hall.

After a while Noelle noticed Asta was taking longer than usual, sighing and getting up from the table with the extra plate of food. It took her a few minutes before Asta’s voice started coming from a room off of a hallway.

“Come on! I’m sure everyone wants you to eat with them!” his energetic voice rang out, despite the attempt to whisper. Noelle raising an eyebrow as she got closer, a softer voice responding.

“Toooooooooooo nnneeeeeerrrrrrvvooooousssss.” The voice said, everything about it sounded shaky and frail, like if the person was pushed the wrong way they would break.

“Okay,” Asta said, Noelle now just outside of the door, waiting for a moment to knock. Eavesdropping wasn’t healthy after all. “Then maybe I can invite Noelle up here too? I think she’d like you too!” The Princess blushing as she was mentioned, the pause giving her enough time to knock.

“Asta, are you in there?” She said, feeling something draining a bit of her magic as started to turn the knob. “Can I come in?” She waited, the other person starting to say something.

“Cooooooooome Innnnnnnn.” The voice said, Asta scooting to the side in a chair as she opened the door. An incredibly tall man greeted her, at least as best he could. Raising a hand in front of his huge mass of white-ish blue hair and slowly waving a hand.

“Well uh… I guess you’re meeting her sooner than you wanted!” Asta said, putting a hand behind his head. “Noelle this is uh…”

“Henry,” the man said, slowly sitting up. Noelle feeling more of her mana draining as she walked closer to the bed.

“Yeah! He’s the famous ‘ghost’ of our base!” Asta said, getting more than a little excited as Noelle set the plate of food down in-between the three of them. “The captain introduced me right away since he can’t affect me!”

“So you’re what’s draining my magic?” Noelle said, looking between her boyfriend and Henry. The man nodding slowly with a frown on his face. Asta looking a little worried.

“Yeah, he… has this weird disease thing that drains magic from people. It can’t affect me but…”

“Doooon’t wannnnnnttt toooooo huuuuuuurrrt yoooooooooou,” Henry said sadly, looking away from the pair. Both of them looking at him before Noelle sighed.

“You act like a little mana draining will affect me. I am a royal after all.” She said, sitting down in the chair Asta was previously sitting in. “I have more than enough mana to last a conversation. And someone needs to eat breakfast!” Asta tugging his collar a little bit.

“Crap it was that late already?” He said, Noelle nodding and motioning at the plate of food. The knight laughing and grabbing a piece of toast and starting to eat. “I guess I lost track of time.”

“You’re normally down there eating about as much as Charmy by now, so I got a little worried,” Noelle said, a hint of a blush forming on her cheeks. “What were you two talking about anyway?” Asta blushing in response as Henry grinned.

“Well uh… about us.” Asta said, both him and Noelle turning red as Henry’s smile got bigger.

“Yooooooouuuu twwoooooo aaaaaaarrrrrrreeeee ccuuuuuutttttteeeee” He said slowly, laughing as they managed to turn red from head to toe. They both stayed quiet for a moment as Henry kept grinning at them.

“A-Anyway!” Noelle said, taking a breath as Asta kept eating. Her magic was being drained faster than she expected but she chalked it up to her control issues. “So, you just… stay in here? All day?” Henry nodding, his grin turning to a small sadder expression.

“He uh, doesn’t like to leave the room when we’re all awake.” Asta said between some mouthfuls of food, the taller man nodding.

“Draaaaaaainnnn toooooo muuuuchhh mannaaaaaaaaa” he said, Noelle nodding in response as he kept going. “Cooooould caaaausssee proooobbllleeemssss.”

“I’m sure no one would mind, you’ve… seen how they all are.” Noelle said, her partner nodding enthusiastically. “or maybe heard fits better.”

“Yeah!” Asta said, the plate of breakfast now void of food. “Heck we could go down right now if you wanted!”

Henry shook his head sadly, adjusting in his bed a bit as he said one last thing. “tiiirrreeedd.” The two knights nodding.

“Then we’ll let you rest,” Noelle said, starting to walk out of the room. Asta following her and both of them stopping just at the threshold of the door.

“We’ll both stop by again Henry!” Asta said, getting a happy smile and wave in response as they both left the room, the heavy oak door closing behind them.

“I think we just made his week,” Asta said happily as they started walking back towards the main hall, the pair smiling and holding hands.

“Good,” Noelle said, her partner almost bouncing with how happy they’d made his friend. “Though if he wants to remain secret for now, what will we tell everyone?” Both of them pausing in the hall to think.

“We can probably just say we were hanging out reading,” Asta said after a few moments of silence.

“And then we’ll get a chorus of ‘Asta, reading?’ and have to make another cover story.” Noelle sighed as she shook her head. “but maybe… If you’re okay with it I mean…”

“Okay with what?” Noelle turning redder at his question.

“We… Could say I was giving you royalty lessons?” she said quietly, Asta smiling and nodding. Noelle’s imagination quickly jumping to him in a full royal outfit, talking civilly while still staying the same muscle-headed goofball she loved.

“Noelle? Your face is really red? Are you okay?” Asta said, gently touching her hand. “You’re really warm too…”

“I’m fine!” she squeaked, Asta nodding with a bit of concern on his face.

“Okay! But if you need to sit down I’ll carry you to a chair!” He smiled, Noelle smiling as they kept walking, an excuse completely ready for whatever the group of knights would throw at them.

“HIT THE DECK!” someone screamed, a fireball blowing up the door to the main hall as Asta scooped Noelle up in his arms and dodged out of the way. The pair sighing as the normal amount of chaos was nothing new to them. Luck gleefully zipping around with one of Magna’s many hidden desserts in hand, eating it as he dodged his comrades magic.

“Mmmm, fresh!” Luck laughed, Magna screaming in rage as the rest of the group just watched the madness from the couches. Asta and Noelle carefully, despite Lucks best attempts to get them involved, made their way over to the couches.

“Well there’s the love birds~” Vanessa teased, both younger knights blushing. “about time you two came back from your ‘alone time’” she said, giving them a wink, much to Asta’s confusion.

“W-What do you mean Vanessa?” Noelle said, the witch giving her a large smile. “we were just having some lessons in private.”

“Lessons? Ooo! I didn’t know either of you two were into that sort of thing!” Asta looking completely lost at Vanessa’s implications. “though it is important to try new things as a young couple.”

“I don’t get it…” Asta said, Noelle covering her face with her hands. “She was just teaching me things on how to be a good boyfriend.” A few of the other people in the room getting blushes from misunderstanding what he said, including Noelle.

“Oh, so she was teaching you about that?” Vanessa said, her grin a mile wide and getting an even more confused look from Asta. “Noelle I had no idea you were going to act like tha-“

“We were studying etiquette!” Noelle shouted, Vanessa laughing as she grabbed a bottle of wine with her threads. The princess taking a deep breath to compose herself as the entire base started laughing aside from Asta. Everyone calming down after a few minutes with the magic-less knight still looking confused.

“You okay Asta?” Finral said, the knight shook his head in response.

“No, I uh…. Don’t get what was funny?” he said, everyone looking at him with mild confusion.

“Oh my god he doesn’t know what she was teasing Noelle about?” everyone within earshot thought. Asta looking around almost expecting someone to tease him good-naturedly and explain what the deal was.

No one did, a wave of awkwardness filling the base as Noelle kept getting redder and redder. Even Vanessa didn’t have the heart to break his innocence. Another minute of silence as Noelle gripped part of her dress and took some breaths to calm down, Asta still looking confused.

“Did I say something wrong?” he said, the entire room exploding in a sequence of “No’s” The boy still looking confused as the older knight looked awkwardly between each other, Noelle opening and closing her mouth awkwardly.

“Well… Finral why don’t you explain?” Vanessa said, the spatial mage looking surprised she threw him this hot potato.

“What? Why me!?” he stammered, the witch putting her bottle of booze to her mouths and not moving it as she pretended to drink. “Well uh… Asta, how much uh…. Know what? Charmy why don’t you do it?”

“Can’t. Eating” she said, shovelling a pile of food into her mouth to avoid explaining the subject, Finral looking crushed.

“G-Gordon?” he said, the socially awkward man moving his mouth but not saying anything audible to Finral. “Grey?” The shy woman turning into a bird and flying out of the room. He didn’t bother looking at Gauche for help, the man was busy making a figurine of his little sister.

“Luck? Magna?” he said, the dynamic fighting pair both looking at Finral, then at Asta, then at themselves. And then punched each other in the face hard enough to send themselves flying through the wall. Finral sighed, and turned to face his junior.

“Okay well uhhhhh…” he started, Asta looking a little intense with how this had been built up for him. “Asta… do you know where babies come from?”

“Yeah! When people love each other a lot one grows from the mom right?” he said, tilting his head. “Why? What does that have to do with me and Noelle being alone together?”

“Oh god,” Finral thought, Vanessa now actually drinking from the bottle she put to her lips. “Okay well uh… it’s a little more complicated than that.”

“it is?” Now Asta was interested, much to Finral’s uncomfortableness.

“Well uh… did you learn about it in school?” Finral continued, Asta shaking his head.

“I slept through a lot of lessons, so I don’t remember that much,” the boy said, rubbing the back of his head. “it was hard to pay attention.”

“That explains so much,” everyone thought, even Noelle. Finral taking a breath before continuing.

“Well… uhm,” he started, trying to think of how to phrase it. However everyone was so focused on the chaos forming around this table, they didn’t register to the giant crash of Luck and Magna being thrown back into the main hall. Yami walking into the room via his preferred method. Kicking the door down.

“Seriously? This much chaos when I’m on the shitter?” He said, the group looking at him and nodding. “Well, not any of my fuckin business. But YOU NEED TO STOP BREAKING SHIT!” he said, pointing at the pile of debris that contained Magna and Luck. The atmosphere in the room changing a bit as now the group was focusing on the captain. The older knights sighed in relief as Yami sat down in a chair and picked up a newspaper.

“Oh right, Kid, Noelle. You two have the day off tomorrow.” He said, the couple looking excited at the news. “So, have fun doing whatever you two kids have planned tomorrow.”

“Thank you, captain!” Asta shouted, the rest of the base sighing in relief at the seeming change of topic. Noelle taking a breath of relief as the room started to go back to its normal level of chaos.

It wasn’t meant to last, the confusing conversation making Asta feel a little denser than usual as he walked over to Yami. The grown man looking at the boy with a slightly annoyed look now that he was comfy.

“Yeah kid?” He said, taking out a cigarette and a match. Asta sweating as all the knights in the room turned in horror as he opened his mouth.

“Captain? How are babies made?” He said, silence filling the room as everyone stared in horror and Yami, sensing how much mayhem he could get a laugh out of grinned and said one single thing.

“They Fuck.”

Just like that, years of childhood innocence, sleeping through lessons, and a naïve hopeful idea on how babies were made was destroyed. The knights almost hearing Asta’s worldview change with the sound of shattering glass as he stared wide-eyed. Yami chuckling as he went back to reading his paper. The boy slowly turned red and turned around to sit back down, no one saying anything as he looked down at his feet.

“Not till I’m older,” he said quietly, everyone sighing and letting their shoulders relax. Asta and Noelle starting to plan out their trip with Magna and Finral for the next day.

Time to visit Hage Village, properly this time.