Chapter Text
Yuno was in the Spade Kingdom, but he wasn’t home. He was there because his people wished to see him on the throne, his mother calling him to her side a few short months after they’d battled the devils. He was told his face, so alike that of the King they’d loved and lost, brought comfort, hope, and reassurance. He was there begrudgingly, convinced by members of the rebellion, his fellow Golden Dawn members, and even Julius, that he was necessary for the stability and peaceful reinstatement of order in the Spade Kingdom. Logically, he understood their points, but it felt like he’d been removed from his life and placed into somebody else’s, like he’d been shoved off the path to his true destination.
His formal introduction before the people was scheduled for his 18th birthday, a full 5 months earlier than he thought he would celebrate. He’d known that the birthday he shared with Asta was merely the date they were found outside the church, but it was disconcerting to know how off it had been. He wore a golden coronet, waved to the crowds of cheering citizens, and slipped a little deeper into a state of discontent.
He was surrounded each day by people he hardly knew, who looked at him with too much familiarity. They were well-intentioned, he was sure, but their constant presence began to wear him down, chip away at his patience. Bell expressed the frustration he couldn’t outwardly say.
“Get away from Yuno!” she would snap when there were too many advisors pushing him to make choices, to convince him of their place, to get his assent on their plans.
“Leave Yuno alone!” when young women came up to flatter him, when the maids asked if he’d like a bath, when the cooks pushed their country’s dishes onto him with hopes of his approval.
“Yuno is mine!” when everyone else decided he belonged to the country of his birth, and not to the one where he’d been raised.
Yuno belonged to himself. He did not understand why no one else understood that.
“I don’t want to be here,” he said to Julius, Marx’s powers and a new magic-enhancing item made by Nero sustaining their video call across the wide distance between them. “I want to go back to the Golden Dawn.”
“Wait a little while more, just until the people and your mother are fully settled into the lives you’ve helped to restore for them,” Julius answered.
“How long will that take?” he asked.
“You will have to speak to your advisors, and check in with the people of the Spade Kingdom yourself,” Julius said. “With the mages we’ve sent over, and those who have regained their strength by you, physically rebuilding the destroyed towns should take less than a year. Hearts will require more time.”
“How can you heal hearts faster?” The question was born from impatience and mostly rhetorical; Yuno knew there weren’t any spells to fix grief.
Julius’ serious expression became mischievous. “Nothing quite excites the populace like a royal wedding, you know,” he teased.
Yuno abruptly cut the power from Nero’s gifted device. If the Wizard King wasn’t going to be serious, he refused to continue their conversation. It was a good thing Bell hadn’t heard his nonsense.
Over in the Clover Kingdom, Julius laughed at the young man’s reaction. Marx shook his head with disapproval. “It must be very difficult for Yuno right now. How can you be making jokes about marriage?”
“Who said I was joking?”
It was only two weeks later when his mother approached him, inviting him to sit with her for tea.
“My dear, I’ve been wondering,” she began. “Are you lonely? I’m grateful every day you are here, but I do acknowledge that most of your life was spent elsewhere. You must miss the Clover Kingdom.”
“I’m not lonely,” Yuno said. “But I do miss people in the Clover Kingdom.”
She nodded, dropped a cube of sugar into her tea, and continued, “I had quite a long discussion with Ralph about it. While it would have been nice for you to choose a bride from the Spade Kingdom, it would be better politically to choose someone from the Clover Kingdom.”
Yuno was glad he hadn’t yet taken a sip of his drink; had he done so, it would have been spit out all over the table and his mother’s gown. “Excuse me?” he said, not sure he was hearing her correctly.
“Not that we’re only thinking of politics!” Ciel exclaimed. “We are thinking of your happiness too. There are many royals in your acquaintance among the Magic Knights. We thought perhaps you’d be more comfortable proposing to someone you already knew.”
“I’m not getting married,” Yuno said firmly.
“Not yet,” she agreed. “But it would be best to arrange an engagement as soon as possible. It’s not good for you, being alone. It doesn’t matter how many people you’re surrounded by, I know how isolating it can be as a leader.”
“I said I’m not lonely.”
“I heard you, Yuno, but it can’t be true,” his mother said. “We’ll also need to think about an heir.”
“Haven’t we already decided to transition the Spade Kingdom into a democracy? Why do I need an heir?” Yuno asked, growing agitated.
“You must think about it from the perspective of the people.” Ciel explained, “The Royal Family has protected them with the power of the Sun and Moon for generations. Losing your father devastated this kingdom’s morale and defense. The magic you’ve inherited is incredible, Yuno. It’s your obligation to make sure it continues through a bloodline.”
If there was one thing battling the devils had taught him, it was how little that blood mattered. Yes, as a royal he was powerful, but so were the commoners and peasants who had fought by his side. Royals had a talent for magic, but maybe it was just centuries of training that’d given them the advantage. If magical equity was one of their goals, and he was assured it was, then an heir was not something he felt obligated to produce.
“I’m not interested,” he said again.
They stared at one another for a long minute, until Ciel sighed. “You’re as stubborn as your father,” she said, smile tugging at her lips. “I’ll let it rest for now, but please think about it.”
Hours later, Yuno felt sick. Not feverish, but something closer to dread, the emotion sitting cold and heavy in his stomach. It was one thing to hold a temporary figurehead position in the Spade Kingdom; it was another thing entirely to start a family. He tried to imagine what it would be like, with some faceless woman at his side, and flinched away from the thought. It felt wrong. It wasn’t the future he had imagined for himself. It wasn’t the future he wanted.
“I didn’t ask for this,” he said, head in his hands, a communication wand from the Clover Kingdom on the desk in front of him. He was in his bed chambers, finally left alone for the evening, and fraying mentally at the edges.
“No, you didn’t,” came Mimosa’s soft voice from the device. “I can only imagine how much pressure you’re feeling right now.”
It wasn’t pressure, not quite. It felt more violating. Dehumanizing.
“It’s like who I am doesn’t matter at all,” he complained. “They only care about what I am. I can’t be what they want me to be. I wanted to be the Wizard King, not an actual king. I don’t want to sit down and rule people’s lives. I want to be out there, defending them, supporting them, on the ground, not up here in some tower.”
“Who knows? Maybe you can do all that as a king,” Mimosa said. “You don’t have to be like King Augustus. You can rule in your own way.”
“They don’t like that idea,” Yuno told her. “I’ve tried to convince them. They want a traditional king, someone like my father, at least for now. Today my mother even tried to push the idea that I should get married. Produce an heir. It’s ridiculous.”
“That sounds frustrating,” Mimosa said comfortingly, and after a beat of silence, continued. “Royal duties aside, you've never struck me as the particularly romantic type. If you’d rather keep it private, that's okay, but have you ever liked someone?”
Yuno took a deep breath and sighed, his gaze traveling to look at the bookcase nearest him, its shelves lined with novels, journals, and encyclopedias.
“No,” he decided. “Not the way they write about in fairytales. Things like butterflies, or your heart racing, or blushing over hands touching– that’s just in stories. That’s not real. People don’t experience those things in real life.”
Mimosa was silent long enough that Yuno wondered if the magic had cut out. It hadn’t. He could picture how she would be looking at him when she spoke next, head tilted slightly to the side and voice gentle when she pointed out, “Yuno, those things are real, to most people. I’ve certainly experienced them. I’m not saying you should feel those particular feelings, every person is different, but it might explain why the idea seems like it’s causing you distress. You’re not interested in romantically pairing up with someone, and you don’t want to be forced.”
A knot eased somewhere in his chest.
“You’re right,” he said.
“So, hear me out,” said Mimosa. “People have this idea of what relationships should be like, but at the end of the day, it’s about what those two people want from each other. It doesn’t have to be, well, like that .”
The tone suggested "like that" meant "physically intimate."
“It can be whatever you want it to be,” she continued. “A marriage is just a type of agreement.”
Yuno hummed, still disliking the idea of having to bring someone into his private bubble. He also disliked the idea of being cruel; of marrying a girl, and shutting her out completely. He knew he could be prickly, that his bluntness and low desire for physical affection could be misconstrued as neglect. What kind of a role model would he be? From what he’d heard, his parents’ love had been well known, a point of pride. He didn’t want the warmth of their memory tainted by his tendency for distancing himself. He didn’t want his mother to think that her son was a cold spouse.
“Did they say your wife had to be someone from the Spade Kingdom?” Mimosa asked.
“No, apparently she and Ralph discussed it would be nice, but someone from another kingdom would also be reassuring to the people of strong cross-border ties and peace commitments. She said I should consider the people I already knew.”
“Oh?” Mimosa sounded intrigued. “That would make it easier on you, I think.”
“Hardly,” Yuno said. “Who’d want to marry me?”
“You can’t see this, but I’m rolling my eyes,” she said. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is who you would consider marrying. Don’t think about it like some romance novel. Think about it from a practical standpoint.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it would have to be someone you trust, who you generally like being around, and who you know is secure in their own independence. You might not get to spend a lot of time together, given your duties right now, but you would someday. Imagine it for a minute. Imagine you’re old and you’re not as busy. You can finally relax, and there is someone else relaxing in the rocking chair beside yours. Who is that person you wouldn’t mind spending your days with?”
Yuno closed his eyes and tried to picture it. Being old. Sitting in a rocking chair. He wasn’t in the Spade Kingdom’s palace, not in this imagined future. The room he was in was far more modest, bare wooden floors and stone walls. It reminded him of the living rooms in cottages of Hage village. He held a book in his lap, and Bell was there, turning the pages for him from where she sat on his shoulder. He could hear the faint crackle of a fire in the fireplace, and a loud yawn to his right-hand side. He knew who it was without having to look. His eyes snapped open.
“Did you imagine someone?” Mimosa asked quietly, as if she didn’t want to interrupt the vision.
“I did,” he answered.
“Well?”
“The person in the rocking chair beside me when I’m old,” he replied with confidence, “is Asta.”
It wasn’t that his conversation with Mimosa was a revelation; Yuno had known since childhood that Asta was the person he could count on to be by his side forever. It was Asta who’d said it, who’d proclaimed them family first, and Yuno had believed him. He was proven right to trust him again and again over the years. They used the label “rival,” but it was only one part of what they were to each other. Yuno knew that. He was sure Asta, as dense as he could be, knew that too.
Yuno wanted to become the Wizard King to protect the people of the Clover Kingdom, to protect Asta. Becoming rivals with him for the position only meant a continuation of learning and growing together. In private reflection, he could acknowledge that Asta didn’t need his protection anymore. He’d grown into someone with the power, guts, and compassion to truly make it to the top. It would have been a dream competition, butting heads and strength against Asta for years to come, had Yuno not been removed from the running.
He would be a king, but not the one he’d planned on being.
It was there in the Spade Kingdom, laying in his bed, staring up into the canopy above the too-large, too-soft bed, that Yuno realized he was upset not because he could no longer be the wizard king, but because his current position removed him from the daydream narrative he’d preemptively written about his and Asta’s lives.
Yuno rolled over, looking out the tall window and at the glowing full moon. He thought of sitting on rooftops with Asta in the countryside, how they’d watch the sky and share their plans for the future. He thought about how they used to hold hands, before they became too aware of what it meant to the people who perceived them. He thought about Asta’s eyes, how bright they were, and how when they looked at him, it filled Yuno with a clear sense of purpose and warmth.
Was he in love with Asta? Yuno was uncertain, leaning more to the side of doubt. He’d never been skilled when it came to identifying and expressing his emotions, and the feelings of other people were rarely obvious to him. He appreciated straightforwardness. Asta was straightforward. He was easy to read. Yuno understood him in a way he struggled to understand most people. It was true that what he felt didn’t match with what he’d been told romance should feel like, but it was something , and it was unique to their relationship.
The thought of kissing an unknown someone, of letting them close enough to touch him, made Yuno’s skin crawl. When he replaced the faceless stranger with Asta, the tension in his muscles released. He felt safe. He didn’t particularly mind the idea of letting Asta kiss him, if that was something Asta wanted. They’d never talked about it. Romance or sex. The only person Yuno could remember Asta professing his love for was Sister Lily, and she had given him a final “no” just that year.
Maybe, he found himself thinking with budding hope, Asta was like him.
There was only one way to find out.
Mimosa hadn’t sounded particularly shocked when Yuno revealed Asta as the person he wanted to be with, but his mother seemed surprised. Ralph sputtered and took several minutes to recover when they next met to discuss the topic.
“A-Asta, you said?” Ralph cleared his throat and thumped a fist against his chest as if re-starting his heart. “The young man with anti-magic?”
“Yes. He is the only one I’ll accept as my consort. Is there a problem?” Yuno asked, gearing up for self-defense.
“No, no,” said Ralph, waving his hands in reassurance. “I was caught off guard. It’s not a traditional union, you both being men, but historically we haven’t discriminated against such partnerships in the Spade Kingdom. It’s just, there was talk about an heir–”
“And I’ve insisted I should be the last to rule in the Grinberryall line. I believe we can transition the kingdom into a democracy within my lifetime,” said Yuno firmly. “Should an heir really be so important to you, or should the people desire such a figurehead, we’ll choose a child from one of the orphanages to raise as my successor. I truly believe training is more important than blood when it comes to magic.”
When Ralph opened his mouth to respond, the queen spoke.
“All right,” she said, a smile on her face. “He did save our kingdom by your side, and from the stories you’ve told me, it’s clear you two share a deep bond. I didn’t realize the nature of that bond, and for that, you must forgive me. I am still getting to know you, and maybe you didn’t know how I would react.”
Yuno weighed if it was worth the effort to correct her wrong assumptions and kept silent.
“Your family is yours to choose, Yuno. You are my son. You have my full support. I’ll do my best to make sure you are supported by the entire kingdom,” Ciel said. “I only ask that you do things by our customs, when the time comes to marry. Allow us the joy of seeing you wed in the public chapel and a parade in the streets.”
She held out her hand to Yuno as if making a deal.
"You’ll explain the customs to me in more detail at a later date,” Yuno ordered.
“With great joy.”
They shook hands.
“I don’t even know how long it’s been since we had a Prince Consort,” his mother said. “I’m sure the people will love him.”
There were customs around the announcement of a royal wedding. The people of the Spade Kingdom were enthusiastic about astrology, superstitious about the placement of stars and the phases of the moon. The news of the crown prince’s engagement was formally published in the local papers during the new moon, with the reveal of the to-be spouse scheduled for the following full moon at the palace. All were invited. The citizens were buzzing with speculation and excitement. It provided a happy distraction from the hard work of recovering their towns from rubble.
The only problem was– and Yuno wasn’t quite sure how everything had snowballed so quickly under his nose– Ralph had begun the procedure under the assumption that Asta had already accepted his proposal.
Feeling something akin to panic prickling beneath his skin, Yuno put down the paper proudly presented to him with his breakfast, and ignored Bell's shrieking from over his shoulder.
“What does that mean, ‘the crown prince, Yuno Grinberryall, is pleased to announce his engagement to the people’? What engagement? Are you getting married? Yuno, are they forcing you to marry someone? Why didn’t I know about this? Yuno! Yuno! Yuno!”
Bell was starting to pull at his hair by the end of her episode. He pushed her away, and seeing his pale face, she stopped yelling.
“Yuno?” she tried again, alarm giving way to concern. “Are you okay?”
“I need to call Julius.”
“Oh, Yuno! I was just thinking about you. Ralph sent me a copy of the paper. Congratulations on your engagement! Do I know the lucky lady?”
Julius’ projection greeted him far too cheerfully.
“This is your fault,” he accused, convinced it had been the Wizard King who suggested marriage as the next agenda item for the Spade Kingdom.
“Oh?”
“Don’t play innocent. I know you must have spoken to Ciel, and now I’m– I’m–”
“Getting married?”
“I’m not . There’s been a misunderstanding.”
“You told Ralph no, and he still published this?” Julius asked, holding up the damning announcement page with a frown.
“I didn’t say no, I told him and the queen someone’s name, and he took that as confirmation this ridiculous plan of yours was underway.”
“Ah, that is a problem,” Julius nodded. “Have you spoken to him?”
“No, he was so excited about it, and I was too shocked to correct him. It’s already out. Everyone already knows. I can’t take it back,” he said with a grimace.
“And what do you need my help with?” Julius asked. “You didn’t call me only to complain.”
That was true. Yuno braced himself to ask for the favor that could ruin the rest of his life.
"I need you to send Asta as an envoy to the Spade Kingdom, immediately.”
“I don’t think his anti-magic is going to get you out of this one,” joked Julius.
“That’s not why I need him.”
Yuno prayed the Wizard King would understand what he was saying between the lines. If he did, he gave nothing away in his expression.
“I believe he’s out helping to restore a town in the Forsaken Realm. I’ll see if I can get Finral to deliver him to you later today or tomorrow. What would you like me to tell him?”
“That his presence is requested by the crown prince.”
“Very well.”
Yuno closed the call with a muttered “thank you” and stared at the magical item beneath his hand, forcing himself to breathe through the sudden and sharp anxiety that rose in his chest. What was he thinking ? There was no way Asta was going to give up his dream of being the Wizard King to be some diplomat in a foreign land. Yuno was going to make a fool of himself and risk his deepest bond with another person for what ? The approval of an illusion for people he didn’t know or care about? Tears pricked his eyes as he took another shuddering breath.
No. He would not fall apart. Asta wouldn’t reject him, not in a way that damaged what they had. Maybe it would be awkward, but they’d be okay. Even if he didn’t want to get married, he’d help Yuno find a solution.
No matter what happened, it would still be the two of them, 100 years old and side-by-side in their rocking chairs. Of that, he was sure.