The air was tense between Magni and Vesper.

It wasn’t because of anything that had happened between them specifically, it had just been a long day. Magni had spotted Vesper’s rope fraying right around noon, and by three he spotted the scholar looking as if he was going to wrap his hands around Altare’s throat and steal the very life from the boy…and so Magni put a hand on his shoulder and asked Vesper to follow him. Without a second thought, Vesper rose from his chair and stalked behind the alchemist, and then they were walking through the streets of Elysium.

“Where are we going?” Vesper asks with a side-eye, his voice laden with irritation.

“Don’t worry, Ves. Just trust me.” Was all Magni said, trying to give the man an appeasing smile as he takes him beyond the city borders. He goes all the way across the plains, all the way to the forest, and all the way to the little lake that the two of them had found several months earlier. The water is pristine, and the sun filtering through the treetop makes it look like a lake of diamonds.

With a flick of his wrist, Magni Dezmond conjures two fishing poles out of thin air, before stooping down to sit while snagging a worm onto the end.

“Come on, man. Let’s take a break for a while.”

Vesper hesitates for a bit, but eventually joins the blonde after shrugging off his jacket.

It’s silent for a while as the two sit there, occasionally reeling in a small fish or two and depositing it in an alchemical ice box that Magni had stowed away in his coat. It would be a nice meal for the two of them later, after all. But, as all silences do, it ends when Magni opens his mouth.

“What’s bugging you, Ves?” Magni bumps shoulders with the scholar, earning a look from behind the man’s glasses. “You know you can talk to me. I won’t tell a soul.”

“…it’s been a lot of work over the past few days.” Vesper’s voice is low, and it only rises as he continues to talk. “I have had to shoulder Axel and Flayon’s work because they’ve been off on a bender, I have had to do all of Altare’s paperwork because he keeps making clerical errors, and I have had to sit and worry because Bettel’s been hospitalized due to the last mission. It seems like everything in the world is blowing up around us, and I am the one who has to deal with FUCKING ALL OF IT.”

Vesper punches the dirt beneath him with a snarl, his fangs on full display as he glares into the water.

“And Altare has the gall to put more on my shoulders. More and more, until I feel like I’m going to FUCKING explode. The only one who will goddamn listen to me is you! Not a single fucking soul!” His shoulders are heaving as he lets out all his anger, and it is instantly quelled when Magni wraps an arm around his shoulders, fishing poles forgotten.

“Hey…” Magni begins, and that’s when Vesper presses the palms of his hands into his eyes and begins to sniffle.

“Sorry…I-I just…it’s a lot…”

“I get it, Ves. I get it. Do you mind?” Magni opens his arms for a hug, and Vesper immediately accepts it, pressing his face into the man’s chest as the alchemist wraps his arms around the shaking scholar’s shoulders. “We’re going through a rough patch right now, and you’re our backbone…but you’ve got to take a break eventually, okay? Let me take over the paperwork until you’re feeling okay, and even then, we can split it between ourselves. I can’t take on much more field work than I already am, but I’m sure you can bug Hakka into helping out. We’re a group, man – this is what we’re made for.”

“But he keeps—”

“I’ll talk to him for you. I promise that, Ves, so just…relax a little, okay? You have me for as long as you want me.”

No more words are spoken between them. Magni holds Vesper for a long time after that.

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Pub: 10 Jul 2023 03:33 UTC

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