Hage village - 10 years prior to the entrance exam
It was a rainy day in the Forsaken realm, enough so that despite it being difficult, Father Orsi and Sister Lily had convinced Asta and Yuno to play inside with Recca. The three of them had settled on playing house, since they had just managed to get a new plush for the youngest orphan.
“Yuno!!!!” Asta cheered, managing to somehow get a little blanket fort set up in their small bedroom. It was using flimsy blankets and barely there pillows but it still was inviting with the cold rain pounding on the roof. “It’s ready!”
“Asta…” the timid boy said, holding the form of a young baby who was recently dropped off at the orphanage. “Please don’t yell, i-if Nash starts crying i-i don’t know if i can calm him down.”
“Sorry!” Asta blurted out, all three of them looking at the baby before sighing in relief that he wasn’t woken up. “So uh… we’re playing house right?”
“Uh huh!” Recca said, sitting under the blanket fort and excitedly motioning for her two siblings to come under it as well. “hurry, hurry!” Happily the two obliged, looking between the sleeping infant Nash and the brand new doll Orsi had used most of the church's donations to buy.
“Okay so Yuno can be the dad,” Asta said, all four of them sitting under the blanket fort with a few bowls to act as play food. “And I can be the mom!”
Yuno gave his sibling a confused look, with Recca not catching on and happily playing with the doll. He stayed quiet, wondering why Asta, who at this point in life he thought was his brother, would so eagerly try to be the mom while playing house.
He waited till they were cleaning up for evening prayers and were alone to ask.
“Asta, do you wanna be a mom?”
The ashen blonde child paused, before giving a small silent nod.
“Do you wanna talk to Father or Sister about it?”
Asta shook her head, children’s optimism was a powerful thing, but so was the fear.
“Do you want me to call you Sister too?”
Asta nodded, Yuno doing his best to keep quiet as he was suddenly hugged.
“Can you only do that when we’re alone?” she asked quietly, Yuno for once having to be the optimist and nodded before helping his sister clean up.
Ten years later - The Black Bull Hideout
Everyone at this point had gotten to know their little fugitive friend fairly well. Hyper optimistic, always saw the best in people, and for some reason was obsessed with Nun’s. Not that Finral could blame the anti-magic knight, there was a certain appeal about the outfits.
Though they had noticed Asta had gotten a lot closer with Vanessa, not to a point that any of them were worried something was going on, but enough to wonder about things.
And seeing Asta sprint off to ‘his’ room with a particularly large parcel and Vanessa stumble off a few minutes later in the same direction definitely got two certain delinquents and a curious princess.
“A parcel that big may mean a fighting dummy!” Luck whispered as the trio of mages did their best to find where Asta’s room was from the outside of their labyrinthine hideout. The lightning mage was practically jolting with excitement at the idea of something he could let loose on.
“M-Maybe it’s a gift for someone!” Noelle nervously spat out, doing her best to stay seated on Magna’s broom as she imagined it being a huge stuffed animal for the princess, along with a confession.
“It’s a cool jacket, obviously,” Magna said, carefully flying Crazy Cyclone underneath Asta’s window. “He keeps getting torn up! A man’s gotta have the coolest jacket!”
They tried to keep from bickering as they floated just under the open window, their eyes barely peeking in as they saw Asta, sitting at a small desk with a mirror. And Vanessa on another chair seemingly styling the knight's hair. Nero was also there, her back to the window as she watched.
“All right,” Vanessa said, her voice full of gentleness as she grabbed a brush and what appeared to be a small makeup kit. “We’re gonna make sure you look your best, Astrid,”
“Thanks, Vanessa” the young girl said, Noelle Luck and Magna quickly piecing things together and watching as the knight slowly had her headband removed and her hair pinned back. Vanessa started with a layer of primer, then foundation and moved on to some small work with scissors.
‘Asta’s a girl?’ all three of them thought as they pulled away from the window. Changing position to be a little less conspicuous and to get a better view into the room. When they looked back, the clothes they were so used to seeing the knight in were in a pile on her bed. And was slowly being fitted into a dark blue sundress.
“Well, it looks like the tailor did what we asked,” Vanessa continued, Nero grabbing something off of the bed from the massive parcel. Revealing a pair of small black heeled shoes. “Is it too tight?”
“Nope!” Astrid said, the group watching her transformation saw the same abundant energy in her smile as she did the happiest spin imaginable. “It feels great!”
“Then try spinning with these on,” Nero sighed, the woman handing the heels over to her along with a pair of socks. “After that we can look at your medicine.”
“Sure!” Astrid said, the three other Bulls now hiding again as thoughts rushed through each of their minds.
‘Crap,’ Magna thought, clenching his fists as he realized how much it must’ve hurt her to be called a guy so much. ‘Assuming her gender wasn’t manly of me’
‘Does this make her the strongest girl in the base?’ Luck thought, looking between the window and Noelle. ‘I should make them fight to find out!’
‘Okay, okay calm down Noelle,’ the princess thought, her face being flushed red at the discovery. ‘She’s still the person you know, I-it’s just now she’s cuter. A-a-and you could be closer with her at a sleepover than you could before. M-maybe even k-k-k-’ she couldn’t finish the thought before having to cover her face with her hands.
The clack of the small heels on stone got all three of them focused on the window again. And the big realization of what they just saw.
‘We need to leave so she can tell us herself,’ they all thought, trying to move away as quietly as possible. Luck had it the easiest, since he could catch himself quietly with his magic. Magna however had to quietly lower his broom with Noelle on it, one slip up from any of them could hurt their friend. A lot.
“Do you want to tell everyone today?” Vanessa said, the three Bulls still moving as quietly as they could away from the window.
“I… I think so,” Astrid said, her voice uncharacteristically full of nerves. “They won’t… hate me? Right?”
Those words broke all three of the slowly sneaking away Bulls hearts. After everything, searching for a way to heal her arms, rushing the parliament of the Clover Kingdom to save her and getting as close as they all had. And she was still terrified of losing that friendship.
“No, they won’t,” Nero said, leaning out the window and giving the three snooping knights a look. “They’ll definitely be supportive.” The three snooping knights nodded as the woman’s eyes narrowed. She carefully moved a hand to say they should get going before they got in trouble. “Knowing them they may even bake you a cake.”
“You think?” Astrid said, Nero shifting back to her bird form and sitting on her head. A small wing papped her nose as Vanessa brought out a bag of accessories.
“Now, how far do you want to go with this?” she asked, the youngest girl in the room reaching for her headband.
“Just this, it doesn’t feel right if I don’t wear it.” Astrid said, Vanessa was already reaching around to adjust her hair.
“Well, let’s take it one step at a time for now then,” the witch laughed, preparing a pair of scissors as they got Astrid ready for her coming out announcement.
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So cute!!! Noelle is such a useless lesbian.