#finral and yami friendship

[acacia-may]

Hi if you're feeling in a mood to comment on some OC ships could you maybe talk about Nozel x Helena and Gabriel x Vanessa?

(the second one I'm still working on developing better, but after Erika's comment I'm determined on them getting a happy ending even years after Paper Hearts)

For platonic relations what about Yami and Finral?

Of course, Lola! Thank you so much for the ask! I would be delighted to ramble about your ships (though I know we have discussed a little before so I apologize in advance if I repeat myself a little bit here). 🥰

Nozel x Helena

I'm sure that you know already, but I absolutely adore this ship. There are a lot of good pairings out there for Nozel (both with canon characters and OCs) but I think I personally vibe with this dynamic for him the most. I think Helena and her sunny personality are just so good for him. The grumpy one x sunshine one trope is my sister's favorite ship dynamic of all time, so even though it's not always my thing, I think that's given me a real appreciation for it. Regardless, it just works so well in this case. Nozel is so serious and so uptight, and Helena is so warm and so kind. I love the fact that she is sunshiny but more reserved about it. In my personal interpretation of Nozel, I think I see him more as a person who would get kind overwhelmed by a big personality, so I love that Helena is just so sweet and gentle with her positivity and kindness. Her big heartedness and her ability to see the good in people is really admirable, and after getting to discuss your work with you and getting to read your post about your inspirations for "Paper Hearts," I came to love and appreciate her even more. (Also, her character design is absolutely gorgeous).

I love that Helena is not just there to be Nozel's love interest but also to encourage to turn over a new leaf and heal his relationships with his family (because, I'm sure it goes without saying, but that's my jam! Next thing I know I'm going to go all in for the dysfunctional Silva Bros too, okay? I'm just waiting for it to inevitably happen lol). Jokes aside though, as soon as I started reading your work, I knew that there was more to this story than just Nozel finding love, and I love that. I'm not the most romantic person, but I do appreciate when love stories are integrated into the bigger context of someone's life. Nozel has been through so much, and it really does warm my heart to think of him turning over this new leaf, being happy, and finding love someday. That said, I am just bonkers about this idea of combining all of that with him rebuilding his relationships with his siblings. JUST YES!! It's everything I ever wanted. I'm not if I've ever talked about this but my favorite Nozel x Canon Character pairing is probably Nozel x Dorothy for this exact reason. I like that she has this bond with Noelle, and we see her kind of encouraging Nozel and Noelle to repair their sibling bond, but I think it is more of a jump to combine the Silva Siblings bonding and the romance in that particular case, so when I found your "Paper Hearts" I'll admit I kind of went a little bit feral over it because those two things are so seamlessly and beautifully integrated together in Nozel and Helena's story. And when you shared with me that that was part of your plan and something you wanted for your work all along, it just all came together and made perfect sense for me. It's so compelling, and I think you've succeeded in that so well. I can't wait to see how everything plays out!

Needless to say, I am all in for this ship. I absolutely adore it, and it's probably my favorite ship for Nozel. I say this even as after I have already paired him off with Dorothy in my Future Problems next gen series, but there's totally a world (probably several worlds) where he marries Helena now. I need it to happen. I really need it. They're just so good!

(Bonus ramblings: I love the title of their story "Paper Hearts!" It's very clever given Helena's magic so I love it for that, but it always makes me think of one of my favorite songs "Paper Hearts" by The Vamps too).

Gabriel x Vanessa

I am so here for this pairing! It has really piqued my interest and is quickly becoming one of my favorite Vanessa ships. I think I mentioned before that I do like or am a least neutral to a lot of Vanessa pairings, but none of them really fit Vanessa's own admission about the kind of person she likes in the Assorted Questions Brigade in the manga, so I love that Gabriel really fits that for her. She deserves a man that's her type (at least in some universe).

I'm sure you also know that I just adore Gabriel as a character (and not just because I'm biased because I also have an OC named Gabriel. Though it is an awesome name, objectively! 😁). I love his relationship with his sister, Helena, and that he is strong while also being empathetic. Even though he is confident, I think he has such a kind heart, and I love that about him too. Gabs is really a sweetheart, and I think his more adventurous side and willingness to explore other points of view (i.e. not just doing things the way they've always been done to keep with traditions) would really endear him to Vanessa. I also really love the idea of them bantering with each other. That's really fun!

Plus, with Helena being so close to her brother and also so close to Vanessa as a friend, I think there could be some really fun interactions there with her (good-naturedly) teasing them a little about their feelings and relationship, and I eat that stuff up (honestly, I think most of my attempts to write romance involve someone's close friend or sibling making those kind of shipping jokes about them. It's a very fun concept to me).

Overall I'm just really excited to see them interact and how their relationship develops! I think it's going to be great!!💖

Yay! Platonic bonds too! Thank you for this! You're the best. I love when people let me ramble about my favorite friendships and family relationships. 🥰

Yami and Finral's Friendship

This friendship really warms my heart. It goes without saying that Finral has serious father issues, so the idea of him having this strong, male role model that believes in him really means a lot to me. I know that when we see them in the series, they're both in their twenties where Yami being older isn't as meaningful, but Yami let Finral onto his squad when he was a young, 15 year old boy who had never really had a father, and even if Yami wasn't intending to step into that paternal role and/or even if Finral saw him more as an older brother than a dad, the end result is the same. For the first time in Finral's life, there is this older male figure who he really looks up to and who believes in him. Yami gives him a chance, gives him the opportunity to join his squad, and sees something special in him and his supposedly "weak" magic that Finral has been told is useless his entire life. And you can really see throughout the series how much this means to Finral and how much it inspires him and allows him the chance to flourish and to learn to believe in himself too. (A/N: On a similar note, I love to imagine William and Langris have a similar bond with each other and that doesn't get talked about enough, so I wanted to do a quick shout of to it here).

I do love that they build this friendship with each other over time, and getting to see Finral kind of being "the responsible one" on the squad is really fun to me. As my sister and I often joked while binging the anime, it's a sad day when you realize that Finral is "the responsible one" out the Black Bulls, but it does make for some really great and really funny moments. Also, I have always had a major fascination with the early Black Bulls when the squad (at the least the members that were around) were just Yami, Finral, Vanessa, & Gordon. It's just such a fun dynamic, and I loved getting to write about their misadventures. ^^

[wildflowerwoodsworld]

Wild's Black Clover Fic Recs

I did have one list, but Tumblr wouldn't let me post is all as one, so stay tuned for Part Two with more shippy fics

So, I've seen a lot of these floating around over the years and they all seem to have the same dozen fics on them, so I want to try and highlight some of the lesser known fics in this fandom I love alongside some of the more well-known ones. (Note: I have done my best to avoid reccing more than three/four fics by the same person to make sure plenty of authors make it onto the list, not just the popular ones)

This is not just my tastes, I have asked a lot of other people in this fandom for their own fic recs to compile into this list.

Disclaimer: despite my best attempts to be unbiased with this list, I'm human. There are some amazing fics that I haven't personally read bc they contain my NOTPs or tags I don't like or they just squick me out. This is not a complete list of fics in the fandom you should read. This is a list of fics I, and my friends, like.

I will also not be including any purely smut fics on this list.

Wordcounts have been rounded to the nearest 1000 words. They might be slightly longer or slightly shorter than the wordcount listed.

With that being said, let's get into it!

Gen Bulls-Centric Fics

I'm going to preface this entry with the statement that I was not intending to put any of my own fics on this list. Then I had several people tell me that I needed to include this. So here it is.

Crytpid Black Bulls (Series) by WildflowerWoods

Rating: T Ships: Gen Black Bulls Length: 130k The Black Bulls are the cryptids of the Clover Kingdom. AKA a series of short stories about the Black Bulls and everyone else coming to realise just how crazy they are. Not in chronological order.

Small Problems by eclipsingbinary

(I would also reccomend the series this fic is attatched to)

Rating: T Ships: Gen Black Bulls Length: 52k Yami sends out four of his magic knights to investigate a well explored dungeon. Three of them come back a little different. The story of Yami's adventures in unexpected fatherhood, Asta's sudden promotion to 'not the youngest member of the squad anymore' and Vanessa's new talents in children's toy manufacture. Also featuring unpleasant realisations, child endangerment and a hefty dose of making things better with cuddles and pancakes.

hearts can break, but can also be mended by Katcchan

Rating: G Ships: Yami & Finral, Black Bulls & Finral Length: 3k A few days after the Royal Knights Selection Exam, Finral wakes up to Yami talking to William and his brother, Langris.  Finral + Yami/Black Bulls hurt/comfort fic!

love, i've lost a screw or two, so could i snag a spare off you? by JadeGM

Rating: G Ships: Yami & Everyone Length: 2k After the final battle against the Dark Triad, the Black Bulls all want to make sure their captain's okay - and they're not the only ones.

Found My Heart and Broke It Here by JadeGM

Rating: M Ships: Luck & Magna, Luck & Vanessa Length: 5k Being bodysnatched via forbidden magic isn't a pleasant sensation for anyone, but it works out especially badly in combination with Luck's natural mana sensitivity. There will be hugs at the end, just as in canon.

The Place I Call Home by Oighear

Rating: G Ships: Gen Black Bulls Length: 3k Day 8: Free prompt- Home How the Black Bulls made their base and their squad their home.

A Bird in the Rain by Acacia_May

Rating: T Ships: Finral & Yami & Vanessa & Gordon Length: 2k If Captain Yami is being honest, he doesn't know what to make of the poor girl who followed him home from the Forest of Witches and who, for some unfathomable reason, still hasn't left yet. When the Black Bulls get caught in a torrential downpour in the middle of nowhere, however, he gets to see a completely new side of her and a new side of his squad as well. Maybe she belongs with them after all. Pre-Series Black Bulls Family Fluff and Fluffy Team Bonding. This is all about the love of a found family and friendship. I guess if you really wanted to see some of the relationships as romantic you could(?), but this is not a romantic work (beyond just the tiniest bit of Finral being Finral, I guess haha). This story takes place before "Yellow Flowers," but you don't have to read that story in order to understand this one. Rating is for some language. Thank you for reading! Cheers!!

Spin the Wheel by Cyrooo

Rating: G Ships: Gen Black Bulls boys Length: 1k Day Two: Competition In which eight black bulls members play Twister under the watchful eyes of their captain and vice captain and it's as horrible as it sounds, really.

Let Us Be Stars (ongoing) by Teleportation_Magic

Rating: Not Rated Ships: Asta & Noelle Length: 7k Her legs were shaking. Asta was somewhere, ahead of her, sword in hand and a sort of never-ending conviction in his heart. She couldn’t match that, shouldn’t have tried, really, since she was going to end up dead now. And then the sky lights up. Or, Noelle and Asta find themselves in the Purple Orcas with enemies on all sides and a corrupt Captain. However, their fate is still inextricably tied to the squad of criminals as their enemies gather and pounce.

Fortune Favours the Bold by BeamMeUpCas

Rating: G Ships: Asta & Yuno, Yami & Finral, Asta & Finral Length: 21k A few months after the Eye of the Midnight Sun attacked the capital, rebuilding efforts are still ongoing. The Diamond Kingdom capitalizes on this opportunity, threatening the borderlands. The Black Bulls, amongst others, are sent to quell the insurgence. But when a lucky strike leaves Asta badly hurt, Finral, Yami, and Yuno need to do the unthinkable to keep their friend alive.

Hunted by eclipsingbinary, finralroulacoolsa

Rating: T Ships: Finral & Magna Length: 100k Liliane Vaude stands at a crossroads in her garden. In one universe she turns right. In another, she turns left and finds her son and stepson chatting together instead of doing lessons. She knows now that Finral is holding Langris back. They need to get Finral out of the house before he corrupts Langris with his idleness. That Magic Knight they met at Gueldre’s party was interested in spatial magic. He might be convinced to take Finral away to mentor him in the city. Six years later, Magna Swing is trying to improve his magic after failing the Magic Knight entrance exam. He is cold, wet, and hungry. Surely one night in a warm basement is not going to do any harm. He is not expecting what, or who he finds.

New Squad-mate, Who Dis? by ZirconiumDragon

Rating: T Ships: Finral & Zora & Asta Length: 2k Finral wakes up to find that his squad suddenly has a new member.

Fears, Insomnia, White Wine, and Hugs by unfortunately_i_love_it

Rating: T Ships: Finral & Vanessa Length: 5k No. No, he can’t. He can’t. This... This is already so stupid. So stupid of his thoughts and so stupid of him for letting the thoughts get to him like this. He couldn’t tell her what was wrong. He couldn’t tell her what was wrong because there was nothing wrong. It was fine. He was fine. He’s just overreacting. He’s just being stupid. He’s just being- “-pathetic.” Or: Vanessa comforts Finral after a rough bout of un-gucci thoughts following a rough battle.

Crazy Trust Thing by eclipsingbinary

Rating: T Ships: Finral & Yami & Vanessa Length: 24k The Black Bulls are given an undercover mission to take down mage-traffickers on the border. It sounds dangerous to Finral, but anything is better than being in the Capital when his family arrives for Langris’s Magic Knight Exam. Yami would just like his ride to come off the roof. Featuring hurt Finral, lots of comfort, finding a family and finding a home. Also known as “the story of why Captain Yami never asks Finral to ‘push past his limits’ when he says he cannot make a portal.”

The sides of Finral (Vaude) Roulacase by Lacris03

Rating: T Ships: Finral & The Black Bulls, Finral & Langris Length: 14k Finral is known to be a happy-go-lucky member of the Black Bulls. But everyone has more than one side to them. Finral is no different. The series of one-shots will mainly focus on the various sides to one Finral Roulacase and how it changes everything yet nothing at the same time.

It's Okay. We'll Just Keep Finding Ourselves by ZirconiumDragon

Rating: G Ships: Finral & The Black Bulls Length: 19k 5 Times Finral helped his squadmates. And one time he was helped in return. (Or maybe he was really being helped all along.) Alternatively: The Black Bulls are a family. And Finral is the mom friend.

Lumiereward by Cyrooo

Rating: G Ships: Nero & Lumiere, Nero & the Black Bulls Length: 1k Nero misses home. (Always). OR: Nero is a compass and Lumiere is her north.

faith bleeds through the cracks by TellNearaToWrite

Rating: T Ships: Finral & Yami Length: 8k Yami knew three things. First, that being a squad captain was shaping up to be a lot like fatherhood, and second, he was definitely not cut out for that shit. Third. Well. Julius had a lot to answer for, that was for sure. The least he could do was help a bit.

Why Asta (and Liebe) are Banned From the Kitchen by bluemeanies

Rating: G Ships: Asta & Liebe Length: 2k After Yami's katana becomes Demon Slicer and joins Asta's grimoire, Asta and Liebe start looking for other things that could be good anti-magic weapons. Liebe might be taking the concept a little too far.

Flower Crowns by AngelicCharizard

Rating: G Ships: Asta & Liebe Length: 1k During an off day, Asta decides it's a great idea to bring a devil to a church

Gen Not Bulls-Centric Fics

Think about it (Series) by thoughtfullyrainynightmare

Rating: G Ships: none Length: 6k This is a collection of short drabbles that exist to give insight to the canon characters presented in Black Clover from my personal perspective. This is about how I see them

What you sow by Willows_Bend (Katy_Stark)

Rating: G Ships: Jack & Charlotte & Yami Length: 1k Jack didn't know what to expect when he walked into their shared apartment living room. Yami glaring at a tiny plant in a pot while trying to navigate the language of botany was not one of them.

Black Clover: Captain Yami's Rescuers by YenGirl

Rating: Not Rated Ships: Yami & Jack, Yami & Charlotte Length: 1k While in captivity, Captain Yami ponders the age old question of who will rescue him and William Vangeance.

What Yami Saw by BeamMeUpCas

Rating: G Ships: Yami & Nozel Length: 8k Nozel needs a favor. Yami will maybe not hold it over his head for all eternity but he'll take great delight in letting Nozel think he will.

Ten-year Rendezvous by khanh

Rating: G Ships: William & Damnatio Length: 3k William and Damnatio went out drinking once every year.

Life goes on by teaxtime

Rating: Not Rated Ships: Yuno & Belle Length: 1k Bell had lived a long time, and will be around for even longer. (Somewhat of a character study)

The Misadventures of Morning and Darkness (Series) by BBRosenfeld

Rating: G Ships: Yami & Morgen, Yami & Nacht Length: 11k Morgen and Yami are Magic Knights from the Grey Deers squad, and most unlikely of friends. However, they were as efficient as they were opposites of each other. Follow our two besties on their path towards knighthoods, in a fanfic that explores the sinfully unexplored potential of Morgen and Yami's shenanigans as Magic Knights!

Prince Sekke by Oighear

Rating: G Ships: Silva Family Length: 6k The equilibrium between the three royal families in the Clover Kingdom was fragile. If most royals believed their own House deserved to stand alone in power, they refrained from stating these thoughts and acknowledged that the other two Houses were necessary in maintaining the perfect system they had crafted. This cordial understanding was however put in great danger when none other than King Augustus Kira Clover XIII decided to make Sekke Bronzazza a prince.

When the sun sets by khanh

Rating: G Ships: William & the Golden Dawn Length: 1k On the night Zenon captured William, the Golden Dawn has an argument. “Captain Vangeance used everything he has to save us all!” “And he shouldn’t have!! What is the use of us?!”

Follow That Dream by IAmStoryteller

Rating: M Ships: Kirsch & Dorothy Length: 6k It never occurred to anyone to question how Dorothy Unsworth, a whimsical witch, earned the trust and loyalty of Kirsch Vermillion, the narcissistic, arrogant royal.

baking dawn by saikiks (jakubox)

Rating: G Ships: Langris & the Golden Dawn Length: 1k in which langris finds himself in a happy, chaotic mess.

playing pretend by November_Clouds

Rating: T Ships: Yami & William Length: 1k When Yami Finrally comes to, all he can see is darkness. day 1: waking up restrained + shackled manga spoilers!

Lay Beside Me, Under Wicked Sky by AvaCelt

Rating: G Ships: Silva Family Length: 2k Noelle leaves, and the chips fall where they do. [Silva family!fic, post-canon]

Sunset by Lanternova

Rating: G Ships: Finral & Langris Length: 2k Before leaving on his journey, Langris and Finral talk.

birdcage by dollyfish

Rating: G Ships: Finral & Langris Length: 1k here’s gold, here’s flesh, here’s a person with two eyes like a bright, vast galaxy. you’ve never even believed in eyes so honest, and you’re thirteen, you ought to have some proper experience with the world outside the mansion. but you’re also a Vaude, and you don’t. you’re facing another Vaude, and you think- just a flicker, but it’s there- you think he pities you.

Artifice by subtleassiduities

Rating: T Ships: Silva Family Length: 31k When a retrieval mission traps Nozel with a dangerous and powerful artifact, Nebra and Solid struggle to find help before time runs out for him. But their attempts are thwarted by a widespread, rapidly progressing phenomenon: Everybody in the Clover Kingdom is forgetting about Nozel Silva. Their only choice is to depend on one another-- and Noelle, the only other person who can hold onto a memory of their dear brother. Their rescue mission forces them to face their own memories, twisted against them in ways they may not be able to overcome. TL;DR: You ever see Pokemon 3: The Movie? It's kind of like that, but better.

That One Time When Julius Was Late by wintermelon_soldier

Rating: G Ships: Julius & the Captains Length: 1k "We're late... again," Marx said with a worried expression. "Don't worry, Marx. I'm sure everything is just f-" The Magic Emperor pushed both doors open hoping to greet the Captains only to be welcomed by a vast wasteland. The conference room where it once stood is replaced by a large, empty landmass with no trees or building in sight. "W-what in the world is happening?" Marx cried at his mentor.

Ghosts by IAmStoryteller

Rating: T Ships: Julius & Everyone Length: 3k Julius has a bit of a secret. He can see ghosts of his dear departed friends.

OC Centric Fics

Paper Hearts (Ongoing) by KaLolasFantasyWorld

Rating: M Ships: Nozel/OC Length: 270k Helena Drazel is a twenty five year old Royal from Diamond Kingdom. She's a charming and cheerful woman, ready to leave the sheltered embrace of her family's estate. Her mother previously a Clover citizen and an old friend of late Acier Silva, gets her daughter an invitation to study healing magic in the Capital. Because of that friendship Helena is placed under the care of Royal House of Silva. However the siblings, especially the eldest Nozel, are not so fond of her at the beginning. You don't have to know the Black Clover story to read this. I'll be the explaining the world as the story progresses. It will be happening throughout the main events of the whole Black Clover animated series starting from the beginning (episodes 5 - 170), but I will describe them from Helena's perspective. This is a romance, but also a Silva family redemption story and a long slow burn, with many platonic relationships and BC characters appearances. It's canon plus meanwhile... Other ships will appear later in the story. There are some illustrations ;) I will include notes about possible anime spoilers. Prepare yourself for lots of laughter, drama, spanglish, angst and sexual tension. Enjoy <3

Embers of Sun and Flame by thoughtfullyrainynightmare

Rating: M Ships: Fuegoleon/OC Length: 243k This is a love story that unfolds during troubling times. Clover Kingdom facing threats from all around, but still two souls battle to merge themselves into one. Though it is not easy, especially given that one of them is not from Clover herself. But will their efforts be enough? Will their tender emotions burst into flames or shall the faintly flickering embers dim down and die out in the ashes? Read to find out ;) The story continues in "Embers of Sun and Flame: Before We Have It"

Children of the Future by LightNova

Rating: T Ships: Next Gen kids & their parents, YamiChar, Greyche, Zobra, Fuegoleon/OC, FinVan, William/OC, Julius/OC, Astelle, Yuno/OC Length: 105k When Yami and Charlotte had been summoned to see the Wizard king they had not been expecting to find out they had a 19 year old daughter from the future! Nor had they been expecting even more children from the future to appear in their world shortly after her. Just what was going on, and who was sending them here and why?

[mad-serotonin]

Do you have any LGBTQ+ black clover headcanons? Talk about them!

BIGGEST APOLOGIES that this has sat in the inbox for so long!!!

I had to really think on this one and I enjoyed writing this out.

1. I live for Bisexual Finral he just loves pointing out how pretty all the ladies AND men around him are and it’s totally fruity. I feel like what starts as a feeling of envy toward pretty men who get attention from ladies becomes a genuine attraction toward those men as well.

2. Magna being gay and just being generally attracted to anyone with strength and “manliness”. Like it always starts with admiration and it eventually becomes a crush (has the “I wanna be you” crush vibes)

3. I wanna say pan Yami is a vibe but he just needs someone who matches his freak

4. Pan Asta! Bro is full of love and admiration and could be with anyone really. I think he would have no preferences for people based on any physical traits or identity.

5. Similarly to Magna I think Leopold is attracted to masculine qualities. I headcanon him as gay and fully believe he channels crushes into rivalries so he doesn’t actually get that it’s a crush at all.

6. Panromantic Rill who finds crushes through his muses. If you inspire him that’s all he needs nothing else matters to build an attraction to a person (also asexual) it just feels like the vibe

7. Bisexual Vanessa. Without much of a preference towards one over another

8. Aro/Ace Klaus who is the king of the most affectionate platonic friendships

9. Gay Langris. Has a very unhealthy relationship with himself and struggles with romantic attraction. The responses to him when he was younger surrounding the marriage arrangements caused a sort of distaste for women romantically

10. Lesbian Kahono is a vibe too. I feel like she has a genuine crush on Noelle (the double date was actually supposed to be NoelleXKahono and AstaXKiato don’t @ me)

Some Gender Identity headcanons:

He/They:

William, Rhya, Mars, Henry

She/They:

Fragil, Grey

They/Them

En, Marx, Gordon

(While thinking for this I thought about trans Nacht and it’s very much a vibe)

These are just some thoughts

[the-black-bulls]

Nacht: This is weird but a villain has taken hostages and says she'll only negotiate with the Sexiest Man Alive. I guess I could go?

Zora: No, that's Yami.

Yami: Nah, I've been bested for this title by Gordon.

Finral: Gordon is the sexiest man alive???!

Gordon: Obviously. Let me just grab a pack of cards so I can impress her with some friendship magic!

Nacht: How is friendship magic guy sexier than me? Have people seen me?!

[loosesodamarble]

Oh! If you're still doing the headcanon ask game, can I get Vanessa and Morgen please? 🥰

Of course I'm still doing the ask game! I've only just started it today in fact!

And those headcanons you ask for are here now!

.....

Vanessa Enoteca

Realistic Headcanon: Vanessa’s Red String of Fate spell is a two-way street. There’s gotta be a mutual sense of connection for the spell to protect anyone. The spell can get around the elf possessions because the souls of Vanessa’s friends are still in the bodies. But if Vanessa and a person’s bond isn’t super stable, the spell won’t work for them. Zora and Nacht would have a high risk of not being under RSoF’s protection because of the walls they keep up. Nacht is definitely worse off than Zora. While he said he was gonna live with the Bulls, he would take growing accustomed to them at a snail’s pace, and even then his connection to most Bulls would probably remain as coworkers. Even with Nacht’s history with Yami, I think Vanessa wouldn't warm up to Nacht quickly. He is an acquired taste after all. Plus (and this is a personal me thing) I don’t see Nacht and Vanessa having much chemistry. (No hate to people who imagine them with a friendship or even romance. My mind just draws a blank when imagining them interacting. 😔)

While it might cause Vanessa some grief to learn that her spell does have conditions like that making it slightly harder to protect the squad/friends she considers her “family,” I feel like conditions like that would make for an interesting test of trust. Like, imagine if an enemy tried to infiltrate and bring down the BB? But RSoF outs them as an enemy because the spell won’t protect someone who doesn’t value Vanessa as much as she values them.

Not realistic but hilarious Headcanon: Vanessa has never won a drinking contest against other Black Bulls members. Either the members are too young to drink (Noelle, Asta), they aren't interested in competing (Grey, Secre, Gordon, Henry, Nacht), they'd rather compete with food (Charmy, Luck), or they agree to the drinking contest and in her overconfidence, she drinks ahead of time and ends up dooming herself to lose (Yami, Zora, Finral, Magna). Vanessa has won countless contests elsewhere but within the squad, it just never works out in her favor. 😅

Heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends Headcanon: Vanessa remembers how her mother looked when she smiled. When she was first put in that cage, she hoped to one day be able to do something to make her mother smile again and thought that was how she'd get her freedom. She gave up on that hope eventually. But even years later, Vanessa would like a chance to make her mother smile again.

Unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own Headcanon: Vanessa's actually a talented writer and has written a few romance stories (both the innocent and not so innocent variety). None of them are very long with 30,000 being the average word count. She's managed to write one short novel per year since joining the Black Bulls (which means her writing process might actually be "write drunk, edit sober" 😆). She bases the stories on the romantic gossip from other squads that she hears about. And one might've been a self-insert fantasy with a knock-off Yami. But you didn't hear that from me.

...

Morgen Faust

Realistic Headcanon: Morgen trained himself to specialize in healing magic. His magic had a natural inclination for offensive spells. But he wanted to heal and use support spells and so he underwent intensive training to get the spells he ended up with. He wasn't without any attacks in his repertoire but he was mainly a support mage with healing, defensive, and other utility spells. Morgen is not a noble who would coast by on his naturally strong magic and just take what's given to him. He will commit himself to learn how to use magic the way he wants to.

Not realistic but hilarious Headcanon: Morgen's go-to response to anything he really didn't want to do (meet with a suitor, clean the bathroom after Yami used it, do a spicy food challenge, etc) was to go to the nearest window and jump out of it. He wouldn't say anything, but walk to the window, open it, and jump out like it was nothing. If he wanted to make it clear how opposed he was, Morgen would run and leap out the window without even opening it. It was so bad that anytime Morgen was told something people knew he wouldn't like, they'd arrange to meet him in a windowless room. (Don't worry, he'd cushion his fall with a bit of Light Magic, that or he'd make a pair of wings and fly off.)

Heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends Headcanon: Morgen's first loyalty was always to his family. Not just Nacht. But his parents too. Even if they didn't truly love him, he loved them. Because they were his parents. They gave him life and a home and clothes. He was quietly neglected, but he was never fully cast aside and abandoned. And they loved Nacht (albeit for the wrong reasons, but they at least values Nacht) which meant that the brother Morgen cared for didn't face the kind of cold treatment that Morgen got. And when it came to the matter of devils, Morgen was more scared of his family hurting themselves rather than the illegal nature of it (hence why Morgen brought absolutely zero back-up when he confronted his family; he didn't want them arrested, just out of harm's way). Morgen loved all of his family, in a desperate and one-sided way where he could only want for their love back, but it was still a deep and honest love. Because that's the only kind of love Morgen knew how to give.

Unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own Headcanon: Building off how I said Morgen was more concerned about the dangers of working with devils rather than it being illegal, Morgen would've jumped at the chance to learn about Forbidden Magic. Not so much as to use it. But he'd tear through whatever books were available and watch with deep fascination as Nacht learned to control the powers of the Bremen devils. While not a scholar, Morgen is the type to like learning new things. And knowledge about devils isn't something you come across easily. Finally, it's his family's secret practice and Morgen would want to be in on that! Screw the law, the Faust family's devil knowledge is really cool!

...

Headcanon ask game

[kcuf-ad]

who are your top ten favorite black clover characters and ships (platonic or romantic) - talk about them

Oh boy this is going to be a long one, so Here we go.

The Characters

This is in no order, but these are my favourite. I have only watched up to episode 86.

Finral, this guy is a ride to watch. He is basically the little Brother friend of the Black Bulls and is clearly the only reason why they haven't died yet. His growth as character was a Great one to watch, both in combat as he managed to stall Langris for a bit, creating a New Spell, and even playing the key part of defeating Vetto with Vanessa and Asta. Everyone bullies him and his Rizz is pathetic and I love him.

Charmy is a character that honestly surprised me at how much I liked. I mean she is a gluton, but isn't afraid to share her food. She is easily the kindest of the Black Bulls, but is disrespful and I love her. I Like how her fights are the quickest in the show, with one or three punches and I love her Magic. I love how she wanted to eat Bell all for Yuno. I also think her crush on Yuno is adorable to me.

Luck is so fun to watch. Easily the most fun. His story is quite tragic and the way he was abused and looked down on everyone was sad to watch along. I like his character trait of his constant smile, and when he isn't smiling, you know she is about to get real. Also, his relationship with Magna as besties is so Damn Nice to watch.

Noelle is basically what you want to write with a female character, no joke. Strong? Yes. Important to the story? Yes. Growth both as a character and in power? Yes. Personality? Yes. She is a top tier female character.

Sekke mainly because how much he gets bullied by Jack, Yami and the rest of the cast.

Klaus mainly because he went from "Listen Here Yuno, just because you have a 4 leaf clover and was chosen my Vangence, doesn't mean I Will treat you the same way and you will Listen to me, no matter what." To "Yuno, did you brush your teeth today? Your hair doesn't look as clean as before. Have you eaten anything lately?". Mom friend.

Magna has been a fun character for sure, and the Fact Here has so much growth and trust in his friends. His friendship with Luck is Great, and I think he gets bullied as much as Finral.

Asta is the best New gen Protag and it isn't even close. This man embodies the idea of never giving up. No matter where he is, no matter how much he is down, he Will never give up as his Magic is never giving up. His weakness is his Greatest strength. He isn't special, but that's what makes him special. His fights are so interesting at how he uses his main Weapon and I love his rivalry with Yuno.

Yami is a retired Shonen protag. I mean think about it. He is from a different country, treated as an outsider, he has a rival with a goal in mind, has the Will to get stronger, his mentor becames a leader of a country and he has an unique skill of ki. Not to mention he is disrespect incarnate, disrespecting everyone left and right while he is on the floor.

Yuno is my favourite rival in all of anime. Sasuke is my favourite rival character, but as a rival Yuno is the best at it. He mirrors Asta in every way. He never discourages in Asta, hr has complete trust in his best friend. He looks Like an arrogant prick, but is just some shy, introverted boy who loves competition.

The Ships

For this, I have more platonic than romantic.

Asta x Yuno (platonic) - The best friendship and rivalry in all anime. Grew up as brothers and never gave up on each other and they truly care about each other.

Yami x Julius (platonic) - I Like it because od Yami's loyality to his mentor and friend, the trust between each other and that Julius was the first person to accept him.

Magna x Luck (platonic) - Basically, one who loves prankijg the other and the one that gets prankes, but they truly and deeply care about each other. Also the Fact that Magna was Luck's first friend is cute to me.

Mars x Fana (romantic) - Come on, how can I not? Mars was going to Fana's hot flames, burning up outside and inside, hugging her which was strong enough to break her out of it as they stated at each other for a long time with massive smiles on their faces.

Klaus x Asta/Yuno (platonic) - all because I love the idea of him Being the biggest mom friend to them

Vanessa x Finral (platonic/romantic) - can't really choose. I Like how both of them are so close to each other, and I Like that their main Arcs also feature the other.

Asta x Noelle (romantic) - A good hetero ship that doesn't make the female character the Protag's future baby mama, but instead encourages her to be stronger than ever and go beyond her past and limit? Sign me up!

Yami x Charlotte (romantic) - basically a girlboss feminist that could wreck anyone's shit in love with the closest looking homeless man on the planet. You love to see it.

Yuno x Charmy (romantic) - I just find it extremely cute at how flustered Charmy is around Yuno, how she would fight Bell for Yuno, gives him treats, and that Yuno doesn't think anything badly about Charmy, and how they net was adorable.

[awakefor48hours]

(sorry if you’ve answered this before) who are your top ten favorite black clover characters and ships (platonic or romantic)? talk about them!

I actually haven't gotten this question before. Thanks for giving me an excuse to talk about them, anon ^_^

My Top Ten Favorite Characters are

1. Asta

I think part of the reason why I love Asta a lot stems from the fact that my expectations for Black Clover were pretty low. A lot of people complained about Asta's voice and personality so I thought I would just have to do my best to ignore Asta. But his voice didn't bother me and I'm glad I watched it because I love Asta.

I also love Asta because what's not to love about him. He's such a lovable goofball and he reminds me of myself when I was his age. Not to mention, I love turning on Black Clover when I'm exercising because it's easier for me to stay motivated to keep going.

2. Finral

I love Finral so much. He's such a nice guy and such a wet cat of a human being.

Also, I'm used to characters like Finral being annoying and perverted and that's what I expected when he was first on screen. But he's exact opposite. It's obvious that he's just a touch starved guy. To use an example, when Finral learned that Nero was actually a girl and he immediately flirts and just as quickly apologizes for it.

3. Yami

HE'S SO WEIRD in the best way possible. He kinda just does whatever he wants and doesn't let anything stop him.

Not to mention, as a neurodivergent person, it's nice to see an adult in powerful position give a chance to the weirdos and outcasts of the world.

4. Mereoleona

She's weird in her own way. She decided that instead of joining the Crimson Lions to just... live alone in the wilderness. Iconic.

Then when Fuegoleon was in a coma, she makes fun of him in the way that older sisters do. Like Yami, she just kinda does whatever she wants, sees the potential in people no matter their walk of life, and cares deeply for her squad and her little brothers.

5. Vanessa

Vanessa has a lot of personality traits that I wish I had. She's pretty laid back, takes shit from no one, caring, and can stand up for herself. I stress myself out a lot in life and it's honestly gotten in the way of me forming some friendships and has made me a yes woman when I really shouldn't.

6. Leopold

I want to put him in my pocket. He's so cute and nerdy. He loves competition and cares a lot for his friends. Also he reminds me a lot of a few friends I had in middle school.

7. Mimosa

Mimosa is really sweet but she still has other parts to her personality. She's gets annoyed at her brother a lot. I also relate to the fact that she sometimes is just really mean on accident. She can't read people's emotions to save her life.

I also really like the fact that she's a healer but treated with respect. I'm used to characters like her just being thrown in the background and portrayed only as weak and expendable. But she's give her moments to shine and the fact that she's in the Golden Dawn is proof of that.

8. Noelle

I didn't think I would like her when I first started watching Black Clover. Characters like her are typically one dimensional, shoved in the background, and are simply just the main character's love interest. But Noelle is different. She stands on her own two feet and can snap a bone when she needs to.

9. Yuno

I just think he's neat.

10. Klaus

From the Golden Dawn trio, I feel like Klaus is the straight man out of them. He's pretty calm but he does have his intense moments.

Honorable mentions: Luck, Zora, Fuegoleon, Rill, Julius, Liebe, Nacht, Gordon, and Dorothy.

-

My Favorite Ships are

1. Magluck (Magna/Luck)

I'm actually pretty sad that this ship isn't that popular. I started shipping them pretty early in the show. I think I started shipping them in Arc 5 (Seabed Temple Arc) but I was completely sold on their relationship after this hug.

2. MarsFana (Mars/Fana)

Not much to say here. These two have a very simple but nice romance. It's a very cookie cutter romance and some times that's all a romance needs to be. It's really hard to ruin childhood friends to lovers anyway.

I'd love to see more of them though considering how important they were in the beginning.

3. Finral x Finesse (do these guys have a ship name?)

I know that this ship isn't really popular and it makes sense. Finesse was added later in the show and. But I think she's good for Finral and it's clear he loves her. His devotion to change is strong and is another reason why I love him.

I don't have a lot a romantic ships for this show. Some honorable mentions: Astelle (Asta/Noelle), Greyche (Grey/Gauche)

My Favorite Platonic Ships are

1. Finral and Vanessa

These two share one (1) braincell and I love it.

Not to mention I love their parallels. They're both very flirty and come from a family that treated them poorly because of their magic. For Vanessa, Witch Queen saw potential in Vanessa and locked her away while Finral's skills were overlooked in favor of bother's. Vanessa is more confident while Finral is pretty cowardly. Their similarities and differences really help to balance their relationship and it works very well.

I also like when they fight together because it feels very much like they step up to the role of being Asta's older siblings.

I'm also just a huge sucker for physically affectionate m/f friendships.

2. Gauche, Gordon, and Grey

The trio I didn't know I wanted but the one I needed.

So while it's clear that Gordon and Grey are pretty similar to each other, Gauche is a great addition. They're the least social characters in the show and while Gordon and Grey want to make more friends, Gauche wants to push people away. Also, as the story progresses, it's clear that Gauche is starting to care about the Black Bulls, especially Grey and Gordon.

I think the best way to describe it, they remind me of the "they asked for no pickles" meme.

3. Asta and Leopold

As mentioned, Leopold reminds me of friends I made in middle school and Asta reminds me of me. So their relationship feels more personal to me. They clearly love each other and both encourage each other to do better.

4. Asta and Yuno

They both parallel each other in the way that Vanessa and Finral do. Asta represents the journey of hard work while Yuno represents the journey of natural talent. They constantly challenge each other in a way that no one else could do and neither of them would be where they are today without the other.

I sure do parallels.

5. Vanessa and Luck

These two are criminally underrated. Vanessa is definitely the Black Bulls' older sister but her relationship with Luck just hits different. She loves him and he clearly thinks highly of her too (in his own special way).

6. Nero and Lumiere

Lumiere is such a dork rivaled only by Julius and Nero keeps to herself for the most part but she is clearly soft for him and I really like that. In fact, in a flashback, Lumiere annotated a part in a book that said something like "Secre would love this."

7. Vanessa and Magna

Vanessa clearly enjoys poking fun and getting a rise out of Magna. But despite their bickering, they do like each other. You don't have to twist their arm if it came to helping them train.

8. Klaus and Asta

I like their relationship in the anime more than in the manga. Klaus worries and thinks about Asta a lot more in the anime more than magna. He also becomes the mom friend™️ when it comes to Asta.

9. Yami and Jack

These two are just really silly by themselves and together, their chaotic behaviors increases tenfold.

10. Sol and Magna

I'm putting these two last because they're not really friends (and I don't like Sol all that much) but they have potential. During the tournament arc, their bickering reminded me a lot of my siblings and I when we were teenagers-early twenties.

honorable mentions: Dorothy and Nozel, Vanessa and Noelle

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

What do you think will be the final couples of black clover?

Ooo hmmm 🤔 Before I go into the actual answer, I will be including notes from the manga, so if you're not up to date with BC manga, and don't want spoilers, this is the head up

So, while keeping in mind that we're only at chapter 353, and there's at least a good 100 chapters to go, a lot can still happen, which will change opinions to one way or another, but overall I don't think we'll see a lot of "end game" couples confirmed (because ultimately the focus of BC isn't in romantic relations, rather than in friendship and found family thematics).

Let's start with an easy one:

YamiChar - I do think that this will be end game, even if Yami was surprised to learn that Charlotte fancies him, since he had been under the impression that she acted "strangely" around him, or her ki did at least, because she hated or disliked him more than most men. This notion alone, however, doesn't mean that he wouldn't like her back. It could be just that he was caught off guard and has now discovered that his feelings are reciprocated. Which is something that to many would be surprising, I dare to claim. This ship is also very directly insinuated by the series, so I do think that it'll end up being end game. And I do think that Yami and Charlotte would compliment each other as characters, since they're both "loners" in a sense. They've both needed to grow strong on their own, and they both have had it rough while growing up, although Yami does take the cake in that one. Charlotte being cursed doesn't compare to what Yami has been through, but still, they are still able to relate to one and another, and they have respect for each others' talent.

Astelle - Though Asta's headspace isn't in relationships or romance as of now, I do think that this will be endgame as well. There has been a lot of interactions between Noelle and Asta that showcase their common journey, and how they are able to lean to each other. Though Noelle has been gaining more confidence from Asta, than Asta from Noelle, I think, but in any case, I wouldn't say that Asta wouldn't value Noelle's presence and his relationship (in the broader sense of the word) with her. And if we compare Asta's interactions to all other "potential love interests" (I use this vaguely), it seems like all the others have developed a crush on Asta because he's a good guy, which he absolutely is, but Noelle and Asta have been there for each other through thick and thin. Which I think connects them well. As said, only Noelle is more vocal about her emotions thus far, but I do think that Astelle will end up being end game with how strongly that relationship is being built as well. (Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if in the later chapters Noelle ends up saving Asta, like he has done for her in the past, and he ends up saying something like "when we're side by side nothing can stop us!" Which ends up setting them down the path more concretely.)

Greyche - Again, they've been shown to have a lot of positive interactions, and bonding over the course of the series. Grey is gaining self-confidence, and Gauche is growing to feel loved and appreciated; he has found a place in which he belongs. That and they have shared history, in a way, due to that one interaction, and I do think that the reason why that was specifically put into Grey's backstory, is to give more footing for the romantic relationship for the two. I don't have many ships for BC, but I honestly can't see these two with anyone else than each other.

Finral/Finesse - I mean, this is more of an arranged marriage type of a deal, but Finral wants to grow into a loyal spouse for Finesse, and she does care for him, so I do think that it will end up being end game, even if the relationship itself isn't as well fleshed out in canon as it perhaps ought to be, but we can't have it all, I suppose. But in any case, I do think that it'll end up being end game, because they are striving to be together, granted that Finral is doing more of the striving, and Finesse is more or less promising to wait for him. That and Langris seems to be, for reasons best known to himself, rooting for the two to wind up together. I don't have that strong of an opinion about this ship, or reasons as to why the dynamics would make sense, but I do think that it'll end up being The Ship for these two (plus it's being built up by canon, so it would make sense for it to happen).

Charmill - Okay, this could go either way, really, so it's a *maybe* option. And it will greatly depend on how Charmy will continue to see Rill, since she was angry at him for wasting food during the elf arc (granted that it was the elf soul in Rill, rather than Rill himself). And aside of that one interaction, we haven't seen them interact a lot after that, so it's really about how, and if, they discover each other in the future. Because Rill saw Charmy's human form, and Charmy saw Rill's "elf form". It really could be either way, but I would be more inclined to say that these two will end up becoming a ship.

Meresuga - Another *maybe* option, since we haven't actually gotten to see these two interact, but I do think that if someone could pass Mereo's criteria of being able to go head to head with her in a mortal battle, it'd be Yosuga (and he might actually like the brawl, instead of running away screaming like the rest of the Kingdoms). He wouldn't water down her strength, but instead would throw gasoline into the open flame, I think. I think Mereo would find him interesting at least, perhaps not romantically interesting, but ... interesting.

I think that's the ships that I could see being end game (more thoughts in the notes)

Thank you for the ask!

[loosesodamarble]

Yami bringing Ida into the Black Bulls is less like finding a stray kitten in a cardboard box in the middle of a rainstorm. And it's more like finding a fully grown, completely feral cat in a street alley and carrying it home while it actively scratches and bites your arms. Goodness gracious, Yami's loyalty to the Fausts is incredible here! This is why the fandom loves this guy.

Yami thinking that Ida would develop a personality like Morgen and Nacht... That's... oof that's actually kinda sad. He was probably hoping the goodness of Morgen and the fun-loving nature would show themselves in Ida. But without the influence of his older brothers, Ida's someone completely different. 😔

ISfuaystiaksth! Luck vs. Magna vs. Ida would just end in the base (or at least the men's bath) being blown up! Saukajgshrhais! 🤣

Oh my gosh! Ida what?! He just said Magna's not much to look at?! Htkahsdfhasuihait! THE ROAST! And then he gives a 😏 look to Finral and Asta kjshdaushg! Noooooo! Boy stop! You're being too wild here!

Ida's admittance that he'd be willing to kill even the Black Bulls he does like if he had to... Oof. Hefty confession there, boy. Also, yeah, Gauche would've attacked Ida at least once and trust would be hard to grow from that point onward. Yiiiiikes.

"Gauche is a good guy, he's just special" skjdghashlrliuashrtkjhj! Oh Asta! You're right but also aksdhgasurth!

Daw, Ida still gets a friendship with Vanessa, how sweet. Good to know that she's willing to help Ida, whether Ida is a girl or boy.

Yami's otou-san vibes strike again. Yami hears he's the dad friend from Ida and just... gets chills down his spine as he thinks of how Nacht will react (poorly).

Ida Faust if she whas a male 2

As Yami take the 15 years old Ida in its whas turbulent if too say at least Ida attack yami some time yami is not sure why even whit his Qi abelity he did need too take care of Ida he even attack women like nothing so the teen have problems ida is a 180% ver of yami did. know ida he tush ida wuld be like more Morgan whit a hint of Nacht but this is fuc€ up so badly

And yami can’t beat up ore more crush the child there Ida like pain a lot tush he but after a wile he find out Ida can’t fell pain what brings many problems

————————

In the men bath whas it interesting Ida did stare at the other and have he’s little fight whit Magna and Luck but ida fell surprisingly safe if he is whit finral and Asta and Yami

Ida stare at Magna and sitting whit Yami and Asta

Magna: what do you look at punk?!

Ida just make a he face : Nothing there is not too look at on all whit you burn up boy

Magna:Häää what dose this mean ?!“mad

Luck:Let’s fight this wuld be fun!!!!

Ida: No thank a bath is here too chill and in this case too fell nice and too have a nice wive „stare at Asta and finral and then back

Finral fell like he doesn’t know ida did hit on him some time so he know what going on and what Ida mean

Luck : No fun boo

Asta: do Ida can I ask you something?

Ida?“ sure asta

Asta : why do you dislike Magna sempai ore even why you on guard here? we are friends!!!!!

Ida: wow there came something smart out of you“laughing

Asta: Hey!!!!

Ida: good good I don’t dislike most of you but it’s don’t mean I wuld not kill you it’s came time too time wo you need too kill somebody you love Ore they try too kill you and after all after Gaushe did try too kill my why chuld trust you all???

Asta: but we did nothing!!! And Gaushe is a good guy he is just special!!!!!!

Ida : sure Asta you too good for this would „pat asta hair

Asta?!: hääää?!?!?“blushing irritated

Yami just looks at the tzene

After the bath chill Ida whit Vanessa Ida can good whit Vanessa they have a wired good Friend ship after Vanessa help Ida after a mental breakdown

So Yami just see them talk over really stupid stuff so year Ida is complicated in a moment she try too kill Ore disturbing other Ore chill ore even flirt whit them

And in the moment wo Ida say as a joke he is like a dad what is not mean as a joke he know he fuc€t up Nacht wuld really dislike it if he hear this

[solaris-winery]

Y'all are sleeping on this but, William-Finral friendship. You know, the two abused boys (whether or not you extend Finral's abuse to physical or keep it verbal) and who's step mother's you couldn't pay to give a shit about them.

Finral is always high-strung, anxiety dialed up to 100 (also his wide range of vision / keeping everything in his line of sight could yk, play up on the above,,, and perhaps you could have our ever observant William take note of that? Idk, that's just one scenario) and William is so, so kind. Like Finral gets even more nervous around authority figures in the show, and yeah I get it's bcs status and how that works in Black Clover, but I'm making it bcs of his abuse bcs former-noble — I'll write my way around it eventually. The Point is, William would be able to get Finral to breathe around him because he's Just Like That, he's kind and way too nice and his presence has been noted to be soothing, yk? So yeah.

With that kind of understanding between them because of their backgrounds, lo' and behold they become fast friends <33

I can see them chilling together on the roof, just talking. Also William deserves a break, so even if it's slightly out of character him and Finral making dark (or in William's case only slightly darker) jokes about their past, and stuff.

It's relaxing.

Just, them <33

[mangaflames]

Vanessa & Finral 😍

[acacia-may]

Make A Wish [Vanessa's First Birthday With the Black Bulls Fic]

When Yami, Gordon, and Finral realize they have somehow missed their newest squad member's birthday, they take it upon themselves to celebrate with her late even though none of them know the slightest thing about throwing a birthday party...It's the thought that counts though, right?

Happy Birthday, Vanessa!

Relationships: Finral Roulacase, Yami Sukehiro, Gordon Agrippa, & Vanessa Enoteca Friendship; Early Black Bulls Found Family

Genre: Early Black Bulls Friendship Fluff, Attempt at Humor, Pre-Canon, Slice of Life, & Wholesome Found Family Bonding

Rated: G

Word Count: 5,397 (A/N: It's actually shorter in length than some other one shots I've written but divided into "chapters." The entire work is posted below the cut of this post because it's really not that long though 😅)

A/N: Wishing the happiest of birthdays to the lovely Vanessa! 💕I wrote this story about her first birthday with the Black Bulls way back before I had a Tumblr so since I never actually posted it here (and I think I exhausted all of my Vanessa's birthday story ideas for this work 😅) I thought it might be an appropriate to cross-post here in celebration and for any of my lovely Tumblr friends who may have missed it on AO3. Hope you enjoy it! Cheers!!

Link to Entire Work on AO3. Full Text Below the Cut. Thank you for reading! 🎂

CHAPTER 1: What's a Birthday Without Leeks?

“Captain Yami!” exclaimed Finral as he suddenly appeared through a portal in the wall. Yami huffed and narrowed his eyes.

“We talked about this, Finral,” he grunted though Finral’s confused expression did not inspire the slightest bit of confidence that he remembered. Yami tilted his head pointedly towards the door. “Knocking…”

A faint blush filled Finral’s cheeks as he shuffled his feet almost sheepishly. “Sorry… I did knock a couple of times, but you didn’t answer.”

Yami’s brow furrowed. “So you just came in anyway…?”

Finral stared intently at the floor and leaned forward—seemingly curling in on himself. “Sorry, Captain…” he began to apologize again. Sighing, Yami shook his head. This kid would apologize for breathing if he let him. Yami didn’t think his squad members’ pasts were any of his business, but he did occasionally wonder what kind of hellhole Finral had come from that made him feel like he had to apologize just for existing.

“We talked about this too, Finral,” he said with a pointed tilt of his head. Finral’s eyes widened, and his face flushed.

“Sor—” He stopped abruptly. He must’ve remembered at least one of their ‘stop it with the excessive apologizing’ talks. “Um…” Fidgeting, Finral’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. “I…uh…didn’t mean to interrupt, but it was important.”

“What’s important?” Yami asked against his better judgment and instantly regretted it as Finral began twisting his hands almost nervously.

“Well, you know Vanessa—”

“Finral,” Yami interrupted with a huff. “Aren’t you two supposed to be friends now? I thought we were past all this…” Or at least he had hoped they were. Perhaps his relief that Finral and Vanessa had seemed to reach some sort of understanding was a bit premature, but in his defense, Finral hadn’t brought any more flowers into their hideout or otherwise tried to flirt with the poor girl in weeks—naturally, he had hoped this signaled the end of that drama, or at least his involvement in it.

Confusedly, Finral tilted his head and blinked at him. “Past what, Sir?”

Yami quirked an eyebrow at him and debated whether to respond or not. The last thing he wanted was to be caught in the middle of whatever Finral had going on—or perhaps more accurately whatever Finral thought he had going on—with the newest member of their squad, again. He was their magic knight captain not their parent for crying out loud—was it too much to ask that they work these things out on their own without involving him? However, if he knew Finral at all, he knew that he was just going to tell him anyway so they might as well get it over with.

“Just spit it out, Finral.”

“Did you know it was Vanessa’s birthday last week?” Yami’s eyes narrowed. This was not what he had been expecting…   

“Her birthday?” he repeated. “How do you know that?”

“Well I heard her telling some guy in the market how old she was, and when I asked her about it, she said her birthday was last week so she’s older now.” Finral paused and sighed. “We completely missed it, Sir. We didn’t even have cake.”

“And Vanessa’s upset about this…?”

Finral shrugged. “I don’t know…I don’t think so. She didn’t act like it was a big deal. I don’t think she’s ever celebrated her birthday before.”

Yami twisted his mouth to one side. Finral had a point. After all, the poor girl had been locked up in a cage when he had found her—he couldn’t really imagine the Queen of Witches bringing her cake and presents once a year, but… “Not sure what we can do about that now. We’ve already missed it.”

“Well, what we if celebrated it late? We could get a cake and some decorations.”

Yami snorted an almost guttural laugh. “Decorations? Who’s decorating? You?”

“Gordon has some ideas…”

“Gordon?” questioned Yami raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, he’s—” Finral paused, and his face flushed. “Oh shoot, he’s waiting out in the hallway. I completely forgot.”

Before Yami could protest, Finral had rushed over to the door and ushered Gordon into the study. Mumbling quickly and indistinguishably, Gordon handed Yami a piece of paper with a long list of items beginning: decorations, cake, presents…

“You think we have the money to pay for all this?” Yami huffed, and Gordon immediately set a pouch of Yul on the desk in front of the Captain murmuring something Yami couldn’t quite decipher but assumed was probably encompassed in Finral’s next statement.

“If we all pitched in, we could put together something nice, right?” With a slight shrug of his shoulders and an earnest smile, Finral pulled out a bag of Yul from his pocket and put it on the desk beside Gordon’s money. “And we could use a lot of what we have already. Gordon has lots of craft supplies, and we should have most of the ingredients to make a cake, I think. The only thing we’d really have to buy is a present and if we’re missing a few ingredients or something…”

Yami’s brow furrowed. These dumb kids… they made it sound so simple—conveniently forgetting the fact that they didn’t know the slightest thing about decorating and could probably burn water on a good day. Yami couldn’t imagine what they’d do to an actual cake.

“Please, Sir,” continued Finral. “It wouldn’t have to be fancy or anything, maybe just a nice dinner with cake—but if Vanessa’s never celebrated her birthday before, we really should try to do something for her, shouldn’t we?”

Finral fidgeted with his hands, but he and Gordon both stared at their captain with an almost pleading earnestness. Yami shook his head. Knuckleheads…both of them…

Shifting, Yami raised a questioning eyebrow, but his mouth twitched in the corners just barely. He sighed.

“Alright. Fine,” he conceded. “But you morons had better not burn the place down.”

Finral and Gordon visibly brightened as Yami pulled out a small bag of Yul from one of the desk drawers and added it to the growing pile of Yul on the desk. “I’m putting you in charge of shopping”—he held out the money to Finral—“Remember this doesn’t grow on trees, got it?”

Finral nodded solemnly though his face was bright with a wide, excited smile. “Yes, Sir.”

“Gordon will stay here and decorate, and I’ll fry up some meat for dinner. As soon as you get back here, we’ll all try our hand at that cake…”

Before Finral and, probably Gordon too though Yami couldn’t understand him most of the time, could start with their reassurances that surely, they could manage baking a cake, there was a knock at the door. Finral jumped but quickly calmed himself as an apologetic Vanessa appeared in the doorway with pink in her cheeks.

“Um…I’m sorry for interrupting,” she said with downcast eyes. Yami sighed. Between her and Finral—and for all he knew, Gordon too—he ought to make an apology swear jar…

“No. No, it’s fine. You’re not interrupting anything, and you don’t need to apologize,” Finral hurriedly interjected. “We were…um…just…um…talking…”—he nodded repeatedly as if trying to convince himself— “about…um…you know…guy stuff…”

Blinking, Yami shook his head at the ever-reddening Finral. He had at one point rather foolishly wondered if his influence might make the kid a better liar, but he seemed to be getting worse and Vanessa seemed to be a getting a bit wise to it.

She furrowed her brow and tilted her head inquisitively at Finral. “Guy stuff?”

As Finral rubbed his hand across the back of his neck and stumbled his way through some “Um…well…uh…”s, Gordon stepped into Yami’s line of sight and started whispering something or other and pointing at a line item on his list that read, “Get Vanessa out of the house so we can surprise her.”

He placed a hand on Finral’s shoulder, and Finral looked up at him with wide, grateful eyes—clearly indebted to him for saving him from further shoving his foot in his mouth. “We were just talking about how we need a few things from the market.” Yami waved his hand almost dismissively. “You wouldn’t mind going to pick up a few things would you?”

Vanessa brightened. “Not at all. I’d be happy to go. What do we need?”

“Leeks.” Yami resisted the urge to roll his eyes at a blushing, fidgeting Finral who, naturally, decided to try to salvage his faux pas by adding, “And…and soap.”

Yami shut his eyes and took a deep breath. This kid was a lost cause. He opened his eyes to find Finral staring at him seemingly realizing, in some mixture of horror and confusion, what he had had just said. As he began to mouth Sorry… Yami glared at him, and he shut his mouth abruptly. Yami sighed.

“Yeah…leeks and soap…also some milk.” He quirked an eyebrow pointedly at Finral before turning back to Vanessa. “Pick up some cheese if you want some too and uh…”—Gordon held out the paper to him again and Yami read aloud—“Strawberries.”

If Vanessa questioned their impromptu shopping list, she didn’t show any indication of it as she repeated back to them, “Okay so leeks, soap, milk, cheese and strawberries. Anything else?”

Yami whipped around to glare at Finral as if to make doubly sure that he would not be adding any other random items to their shopping list. “Nope. I think that’s it.” He gave a handful of Yul to Vanessa, mentally lamenting how much they were going to spend on groceries they didn’t even need. What the hell were they even going to do with those leeks?

“It looks like it’ll storm later,” he continued glancing out of the window at the few clouds in the sky. “So take a magic item with you and give us a call when you’re ready to come back, and we’ll have Finral open up a portal for you.”

Luckily, Vanessa didn’t seem to pay much attention to Finral was gaping at them, Yami assumed, in awe and amazement at the ease of his captain’s lie, and she didn’t seem to notice Yami’s pointed tilt of his head and glare which was directed at the young spatial mage until he finally managed, “Yeah. Um…no problem. Just let me know when you’ve finished shopping, and I’ll come pick you up so uh…you don’t have to walk home in the rain…?” His tone lifted and his voice squeaked as if he was asking a nervous question, but it was too late to worry about that now.

Vanessa blinked at him. “Okay…but I really don’t mind walking.”

“But the leeks—the leeks could get wet,” interjected a fidgety Finral. Vanessa’s brow furrowed, and Finral’s face flushed as Yami, once again, resisted the ever-intensifying urge to roll his eyes. “And you—you could also get wet…and…um…just please call…please…”

“Okay,” answered a visibly confused Vanessa. Yami honestly felt bad for the poor girl. It was a wonder she wasn’t onto them what with Finral’s extreme inability to keep a secret.

Gordon handed Vanessa the wicker basket they often took to the market to carry their groceries and promptly ushered Vanessa out of the room, clearly confused to say the very least.

As soon as she was gone, Finral, still red in the face, sighed with relief. “Well…that could’ve gone worse…”

Yami narrowed his eyes at him but huffed. “Just get going. We don’t have a lot of time until Vanessa gets back.”

Finral nodded as he opened his grimoire and made a portal for himself. “Yes, Sir.”

“And Finral? I hope you like leeks because you will eating them until they are gone.”  

Twisting his mouth to one side, Finral nodded apologetically before he disappeared through the shimmery portal.

CHAPTER 2: Requiem for Decorations

The pan sizzled as Yami seared the meat he was cooking. He sighed. If all else failed, at least they’d have an entrée. Yami glanced over at the clock on the wall. Finral really should have been back by now, but knowing him, he was probably still indecisively perusing the store and debating what to buy or had completely forgotten about shopping the minute he saw a pretty shopkeeper or beautiful store patron. Finral was so distractable and indecisive they probably should’ve sent Gordon. Yami resisted the urge to roll his eyes and mentally conceded that, unfortunately, Gordon couldn’t just portal to and from the store. Of course, this only mattered if Finral managed to use his spatial magic to shorten the shopping trip—looking at the clock on the wall now, Yami wasn’t so sure if it made much of a difference.

Yami scooped some of the cooked meat onto a nearby plate and conceded that Gordon was probably better suited to decorating and arts and crafts, anyway. Of course, a wall currently blocked his view of any of the decorations Gordon was currently making and hanging up in the Hideout’s common room.

“Hey, a little help here?” called Yami at the ceiling as he pat the wall with his hand. There was a long pause as Yami brought the stove to a low simmer and scooped up some more of the crispy, thoroughly cooked meat. Then, the wall began to move. Where it moved to, Yami wasn’t sure, but it did allow him to see Gordon and his decorations which were rather dark and gloomy for a birthday party.

Gordon had hung strips of dark fabrics from the ceiling like bunting and had strung dark streamers and papers with cut-out designs from the rafters. Yami supposed the doom and gloom was partially his fault for insisting Gordon only buy craft supplies which were on sale and such sad, dreary colors were often in the bargain bin—but, he conceded with a sigh, it was too late to worry about that now.

“Woah…um…this is…um…” stumbled Finral appearing through a portal in the wall—a small bag in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other.

“Gloomy.” Yami shrugged, and Finral sheepishly shuffled his feet before admitting quietly.

“I was going to say ‘a little frightening’ but yeah, gloomy too. Did we not have anything colorful?”

Yami twisted his mouth to one side. “Guess not.” His eyes narrowed Finral. “What took you so long?”

“Well, it was hard to decide what to get…”

“So you chose flowers”—Yami quirked an eyebrow at him—“after I specifically told you not to bring any more of those in here?”

Finral fidgeted. “Sorry. But it’s only this once—for her birthday, and yellow roses are her favorite.”

Yami huffed as he stirred some of the meat around in the pan so it would crisp on both sides. “It’s fine,” he grunted. “But just this once.”

Yami turned to glare sternly at Finral who nodded very solemnly and set about filling a vase for those flowers. “I got something else too,” he added as he arranged the yellow flowers in the vase and set it in its place of honor on the counter. “I can show you—”

“I’m sure it’s fine. You can show us after we make this cake.” Yami tilted his head towards the cookbook and ingredients he and Gordon had gotten out earlier.

“Right,” answered Finral, nearly jumping as Gordon suddenly appeared beside him. He quickly calmed himself as he perused the recipe. “This doesn’t seem too hard.”

Yami blinked at him. He had to admire the kid’s completely unwarranted optimism.

Finral’s brow furrowed as he began gathering ingredients. “The recipe says ‘Baking Powder,’ but we don’t have any.” Gordon who had been put in charge of dry ingredients, promptly provided a container marked ‘Baking Soda,’ and Finral tilted his head. “Do you think we can just use this Baking Soda instead?”

Yami frowned. “Hell if I know.”

“They both have “baking” in the name so they have to be similar right?”

Apparently, a nod from Gordon was all the reassurance Finral needed as he promptly substituted baking soda for baking powder. Gordon mixed together the rest of the dry ingredients as Yami finished up his meat and prepped the oven to the sound of Finral’s increasingly more frustrated mutterings to himself. Yami was almost afraid to ask, but he asked anyway.

“What’s goin’ on, Finral?”

Finral had half an eggshell in one hand and the other half in the other as he carefully tried to separate the egg whites from the yolk—the evidence of numerous failed attempts scattered around the counter in various bowls, cups, and other less conventional dishes.

“Just trying to get these egg whites…the recipe calls for four of them. Why does it need so many?” Finral lamented as he sighed sorrowful at the collection of broken eggs.

“We’re gonna run out of eggs,” Yami huffed. “Just use whole ones instead.” Yami had no idea what that would do to the cake, but at least it would stop Finral from breaking every single egg they had. “I’ll fry up these busted ones—scramble ‘em maybe. If our cake doesn’t turn out, we’ll have meat and eggs at least.” Yami shrugged, but Finral nodded almost gratefully as he added four full eggs into the cake batter.

Yami pulled his frying pan back out and fried up those eggs until thunder began to crash loudly outside bringing all baking to a halt. Gordon and Finral rushed to press their faces against the window.

“Woah. It looks like it’s going to storm.” Finral turned back towards Yami with a tilt of his head. “Wait…how did you know it was going to rain?”

“I didn’t.”

“But you told Vanessa—”

Yami cut him off. “That was a lie.” He quirked an eyebrow at him. “You should really learn how to tell one before we end up with more leeks.”

Finral flushed and twisted his hands. “Do you think Vanessa’s already bought everything on the list?”

“It was a strange list—might take awhile to find some of that stuff.”

The lines in Finral’s face softened before he sighed in concern glancing out the window at the darkening sky. “She’s not going to get caught out in the rain, do you think?”

Yami shrugged. “We told her to call. If doesn’t want to get wet, she will. Now let’s hurry up and get this cake in the oven. How many more ingredients are there?”

“I think this is the last one,” said Finral holding up a tiny spoon. “3 ½ teaspoons of vanilla, but I can’t remember how much I’ve already put in.” Finral’s brow furrowed. “Did you see how many spoonfuls I put in?” Yami and Gordon both shook their head, and Finral sighed. “I’ll just start over I guess.”

Yami’s eyes narrowed at him, but at this point, there was no salvaging whatever they were making here so he didn’t see what it mattered if there was twice as much vanilla. Once all the ingredients were added—despite most of them, perplexingly, ending up on Yami, Finral, and Gordon’s clothing—Yami stirred the batter quickly and poured it into the cake pan he had greased earlier. It was a miracle the thing had even made it in the oven, and Yami felt proud of himself for that much at least. He thought he deserved a nice, long rest and a cold beer. Reclining on one of the sofas in the common room, he popped the top off of bottle and put his feet up.

“Ah…” he sighed taking a nice, long, and refreshing sip. Then, another and another. Eventually, he opened his eyes and turned to Finral who was practically bouncing off the walls with nervous energy and whose unsettled and anxious ki was getting harder and harder to ignore. “Alright kid. You can show us what you bought Vanessa for her birthday now.”

Visibly brightening, Finral pulled out the small bag he had brought home with him earlier. “Alright so I didn’t know what to get, and I spent a lot of time looking at different things. I got the flowers, but they didn’t really seem like enough to be a whole birthday present but then I saw these…”

Yami raised his eyebrows at the small velvet box Finral handed to him. As he opened the lid, his eyes widened. He shut it again immediately. “How did we afford these?”

Shuffling his feet, Finral stumbled, “Well…we all put our money together right? And they weren’t as expensive as you think and…” His voice trailed as his blush deepened. Yami blinked at him. They were really going to have to do something about that lying thing… But as it was now, Finral just fidgeted and downcast his eyes as his cheeks flushed more and more red and he stumbled with an almost unbelievable earnestness, “Do you…do you think she’ll like them?”

Yami sighed. He wasn’t sure if Finral was incredibly stupid or incredibly generous—probably a little of both. He didn’t bother asking Finral how much of his own money he had contributed to cover the difference as he was sure Finral wouldn’t tell him even if he did, but he gave him a quick pat on the shoulder and a slight, lopsided smile. “Yeah. They’re great.”

Finral’s cheeks flushed an even deeper red, and he began to sniffle as if he was genuinely moved which quickly turned to an almost confused sniff. “Do you smell something?”

Yami sniffed the air. It was almost acrid like something was burning… “The cake!” Yami rushed to the kitchen with Finral and Gordon in tow and quickly opened the oven. Smoke billowed out and filled the room causing them all to cough. “Open some windows,” Yami called as he swatted at the smokey haze with his hands. Once Gordon and Finral had returned from their window-opening mission, the three Magic Knights starred dejectedly at their sorrowful excuse for a cake.

“It’s kind of…” Finral paused as if trying to think of the proper word. “flat, isn’t it?” Flat, burnt, lumpy and disaster were all words which came to mind while inspecting the cake. It didn’t look appetizing and possibly didn’t even look edible. “It looks like it didn’t rise at all.” Finral looked to Yami apologetically. “It looks burnt too. Do you even think we can eat it?”

Yami shrugged. He certainly wouldn’t want to if he had a choice. They probably should’ve just bought one, but it was too late for that now. Gordon brought a kitchen knife and scraped a piece off of the top of the cake, which was the least burnt, for them to taste. It was dry, grainy, and still a little burnt but not nearly as bad as the bottom half of the cake which might as well have been ash—still it left Yami with a parched, unpleasantly dry mouth. He reached for his beer, only to find it empty far too soon. He definitely needed another.

“It’s not…that horrible is it?” questioned Finral who was washing down his taste of cake with copious amounts of water. Gordon nodded in agreement and mumbled something before cutting off the least burnt parts of the cake which crumbled on the plate. He and Finral tried to put them back together with icing, but only succeeded in making a mess. They were certainly lucky that Vanessa had no frame of reference otherwise she would probably be disappointed.

“I don’t think it’s gonna get much better than that,” Yami shrugged once Finral and Gordon had shaped the crumbling cake pieces and icing into a sort of blob.

Finral tilted his head at the plate and sighed. He shivered as a gust of wind blew in from the storm that was obviously brewing outside, and as Yami turned to close the window, the wind blew water droplets onto his face from the rain which suddenly turned from a sprinkle to a torrential downpour. As he wiped his face with his hands, an almost unsettling rustling and wuthering sound came from the common room followed by Finral’s exclamation of a string of colorful language Yami thought, a bit proudly, he had picked up from him. He may not be able to teach him how to lie, but he could make sure he had the proper vocabulary for instances when a day’s work of decorations get drenched and destroyed into a soppy, soaking mess by a window that was left open during a rainstorm.

Gordon had picked up a pitiful wad of mushy, sopping papers that had once been hanging from the wall and was cradling it almost mournfully in his hands. Finral joined Gordon in his sorrowful requiem for the decorations, and Yami exhaled before he shrugged.

“At least it can’t get any worse right?”

He had, of course, spoken too soon as Vanessa burst through the door soaked to the bone and taking in the scene in utter confusion.

“Vanessa!” exclaimed Finral sniffling and quickly straightening his shoulders. “Um…uh…why didn’t you call?”

“I did,” she said as she pushed a sopping piece of pink hair out of her face. “No one answered so I just started walking back. It was fine until the really heavy rain.” Finral, Gordon, and Yami looked amongst themselves almost guiltily. If Yami had to guess, Vanessa had probably called in the midst of the burning cake and ruined decorations, and they hadn’t even noticed. She pulled a bundle out of her basket which was carefully wrapped in her Black Bulls robe. “I protected the groceries though. Especially the leeks like you said. I don’t think they got too wet.” Vanessa smiled brightly and earnestly as she unwrapped the bundle to reveal their extremely random shopping list of items kept relatively dry by her cape which should have—at least partially—been protecting her from the rain. Gordon and Yami both turned to look at Finral, but the poor boy was trembling and eventually broke down.

“I’m so sorry, Vanessa! It was all a big lie. We didn’t need leeks or soap or any of that. We were just trying to get you out of the Hideout so we could surprise you.”

Vanessa’s brow furrowed, and she tilted her head. “Surprise me? Why?”

“For your birthday,” Finral explained. “We felt really bad that we accidentally missed it so we were trying to do something to celebrate it, just a little bit late. We tried to make a cake but it got burned, and we had decorations but they got ruined. We still have presents though and part of the cake is okay and…” He stopped as Yami placed a hand on his shoulder so he would notice Vanessa’s widening eyes.

“You wanted to celebrate my birthday? You did all of this for me?” she asked almost in disbelief. Finral nodded. Gordon mumbled, and Yami shrugged.

“Don’t look at me. It was these knuckleheads’ idea. Now why don’t you get yourself dried off. We’re having meat, eggs, and leeks for dinner.”

CHAPTER 3: My Wish

After dinner, Gordon and Finral almost sheepishly brought out their cake blob; however, when Finral insisted that Vanessa open presents first, no one protested. If Yami was being honest, Finral seemed more excited about the presents than Vanessa though she was so pleased with the flowers, Yami couldn’t help but wonder if the other gift was even necessary.

“There’s something else,” Finral beamed and practically bounced up and down as he reached for the velvet box from earlier which Gordon had since tied with a shiny silver ribbon.  “It’s from all of us. Well, the flowers were from all of us too, but they were kind of a decoration and a present and this is just a present and…” Finral rambled but stopped himself as he held out the box to Vanessa. She tilted her head inquisitively at it before she carefully untied the ribbon and opened it.

She gasped. “These are… beautiful…” she stumbled as she held up one of the earrings—the beautiful purple, diamond-shaped gem sparkling as it dangled from her grip. Finral’s cheeks flushed pink, but he positively beamed as Gordon held out a mirror for Vanessa to try on her new jewelry.

“Thank you so much!” Her face seemed to light up as she looked at herself in the mirror wearing her new dangling earrings.

“You should thank Finral,” Yami insisted, and Gordon nodded in agreement. “He picked ‘em out.”

“It was nothing,” Finral answered—shuffling his feet as his blush deepened. “We…uh…still have to have cake…” The words seemed to tumble quickly in an attempt to change the subject. “Or uh…at least you need to make a wish.”

“A wish?”

Finral nodded as he absent-mindedly began looking around. “Yeah. You make a wish and blow out the candles…” His voice trailed before he looked up perplexedly at Yami. “Do we not have any candles?”

Yami gave the kitchen a quick once over before twisting his mouth to the side with a shrug. Luckily, Gordon appeared with a large, white candle from goodness only knows where which would have to do for now.

“Usually the candles go in the cake…” Finral explained before Vanessa interrupted in confusion.

“In the cake?”

“We take them out before we eat it,” he added quickly. “But we don’t have candles that small so we’ll just have to use this big one and keep it off to the side.”

Gordon handed Yami a matchbook, and Yami lit the candle before Finral continued his instructions with a reassuring smile. “Alright now close your eyes, make a wish, and blow the candle out.”

Vanessa nodded and closed her eyes—for a long, long pause. The longer Vanessa kept her eyes closed, the more Finral began to fidget. “Do you…do you think my directions were confusing?” Finral whispered to Yami who just shrugged.

“Is everything alright there?” he asked. Vanessa slowly opened one eye and then, the other. She downcast her gaze and began to twist her hands.

“I’m sorry…I…”

“None of that apologizing,” Yami waved his hand and eyed the vase currently housing those yellow roses as a future apology jar.

“Right…um…” Vanessa’s voice trailed. “It’s just…you’ve all been so kind. You did all of this for me…it’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I couldn’t wish for anything else…”

Yami chuckled. “Well it’s your day. Your birthday only comes once a year, a wish for something you want isn’t going to hurt anybody.”

Vanessa’s cheeks flushed. “I know. It’s just…” She paused and looked up at Yami, Finral, and Gordon with a kind smile. “I already have everything I could wish for.”

Yami blinked at her, almost disbelieving that a real person could say something so saccharine with such a genuineness. Vanessa didn’t seem to notice how unusual a statement this was and bustled a little as Finral sniffled and Gordon moved towards her with fervid mumbling. “Oh um…I…” she began as if she was going to apologize again, but it was Finral, in a twist of irony, who motioned for her to stop and interrupted.

“I’m so glad you’re on our squad!” Gordon mumbled something that must’ve been concurrence, and Yami was fairly certain both of those knuckleheads were wiping tears from their eyes as Vanessa stood up from her seat and wrapped her arms around them. Yami shook his head at them, but his face softened. Morons. 

As Finral wiped his arm across his face and Gordon dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief, Vanessa smiled up at Yami almost expectantly. Yami blinked at her, but eventually sighed and conceded to joining their group hug, throwing an arm around Gordon and Finral. Vanessa just beamed as she smiled back at her squad mates, and when she met Yami’s eyes, he couldn’t hold back his lopsided grin as he said, “Happy Birthday, Little Birdie.”

Bonus: Epilogue

Once they had somewhat recovered from the soppiness and realized the candle still needed to be blown out, Yami shrugged his shoulders and quipped dryly, “How about you wish for a chef for this squad so you can have a real birthday cake next year?”

Vanessa smiled brightly, closed her eyes, and made a wish.

[mad-serotonin]

What are your top ten black clover ships? Talk about them!

I really tried to think to make a fully explained list for this but honestly there aren’t many that I’m very serious about so I’ll just get into the few I really like to think about

(Some manga spoilers)

1. Magna x Luck

They are just so beautifully written as a duo both in a completely platonic rivalry sense and in a romantic sense. They are one of the strongest pairings to me when it comes to chemistry. I adore moments like their combo spell, luck REALLY wanting to fight Magna after the Dante fight, and Magna being motivated to improve in his magic to feel like he can “keep up with” Luck and surpass him. They are just so good for eachother and their development.

2. Finral x Vanessa

I mostly think of them in a platonic sense (or even like friends with benefits I feel like it makes sense). I genuinely love how much they are paired up in the story for their character development moments. They are there for eachother and I especially love how Vanessa is always there to cheer on Finral and help raise his confidence. They are friendship goals. I also love to think of them as the perfect older sibling duo for Asta. They both team up to protect and support their squad members and have truly become a great pillar of defense within the squad. I genuinely overthink on scenes about them just talking out feelings and discussing the traumatic stuff they’ve been through. They are ride or die besties that prevent either one from ever being truly alone.

The rest aren’t really that deep in why I like them, the vibes and some of their interactions are just nice : )

3. Magna x Zora

Those manga moments go insane. “My man” indeed sir you tell him

4. Asta x Leopold

I just love Leo’s lil rivalry fixation actually being a misunderstood crush and it being motivating for his growth to compete with Asta. Mwah chefs kiss

5. Yami x William

They just work so good. Two dads who are very tired and have gone through so much. Trauma bonding men who just need a break and some love. They work so well together as a duo. I need more content of them teaming up. Please and thank you.

Other ones just to mention

6. Julius x Marx

7. William x Patri

8. Yuno x Leopold

9. Noelle x Kahono

10. Rill x Asta

Honorable Mention:

I made some crack ships with a friend a few years back and I think about them every so often and they make me giggle

Kirsch x Sekke

The funniest thing ever I can’t believe I actually made art for them lol

Mars x Ladros

I just. Still think they are neat lol that one clover clip with the noodles really awakened the bickering couple vibes I enjoy

Okay that’s it!! THANK YOU FOR THE ASK < 3

[the-black-bulls]

HI CY, how’s it going? :3

1, 2, 4 and 27 for the salty ask :3

Salty Ask List

HI LUCA! it's a lovely day :D

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

To add on my other answer, Yami/Finral is fan favorite amongst the writers on ao3 which just goes against my personal vision of yami's dynamic with the black bulls. I also dislike how finral's often put on some higher pedestel above the rest of the squad a trend with his character that always rubs me the wrong way. I like the bulls when they're all equal with yami as their leader/parental figure.

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?*

there's Asta/Yuno which is self-explinary, but can I say Asta/Noelle without getting people sending me hate asks? 'kidding. I'm actually neutral with everybody's favorite canon ship, but it hurts me to see noelle pull a page from charlotte's book and avoid asta for a year or more. I dislike this kind of tropes, and I miss astelle when they were more friends than lovers and still show some of the most precious, mature and best shippy moments ever.

likewise but a bit different, Mimosa/Yuno, see I don't ship mimosa with asta nor do I care about her friendship with him, but it doesn't mean I ship her with yuno - nah, I think they're better off as friends rather than paired as astelle's leftover.

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

back to Yami/Finral which is at least popular in ao3, I call it a NOTP because it ruined the platonic/familial dynamic between yami and finral for me, another ao3 popular NOTP is Zora/Kirsch cause I'm a zora/royalty hater and a black bulls gatekeeper lol.

27. Least shippable character?

to add on this answer, Nero... unless it's luminero I have a hard time shipping her and I just know in my heart that the only people worth loving for are the bulls platonically as well as the coffee that will help her power through the rest of her long-as-heck life.

Nacht too outside of yaminacht because yaminacht hit the exes to married trope right, otherwise I fear nacht is too suicidal for anybody to realistically handle him.

[loosesodamarble]

Hiya Erika 🥰🫂💕!! For thr fruit ask game, may I ask for; 🍓, 🍑, 🍒, and 🫐 please?

🍓 - What’s a fic you’ve written you feel is underrated?

Since they're so short I'm going to highlight two underrated fics of mine. They were both written as part of Whumptober back in... 2021. (Hnnnnghhhh.... Wow they're older than I thought.)

The first focuses on the theme of Refusal to Let Go. The second's theme is Curses. Both pieces center on Josele. (All my Whumptober pieces had been oc centric because I wanted to work on my ocs at the time.)

They're downer pieces but they give insight on Josele and her grieving process.

🍑 - If you could make a connection between your favorite character and another work you care about (whether a crossover/fusion or a wonderfully “pretentious” literary reference) what would it be? How would it work?

😈 Nyeheheheh~!

Nacht and Code Realize. So many of the men from Code Realize carry burdens in their hearts the way Nacht does.

Sin, guilt, redemption, and forgiveness come up multiple times in multiple routes. And what do you know, those are big themes in Nacht's story. Love that for him. Just give him a steampunk aesthetic and then he can join in on the fun that the Code Realize cast has.

Nacht has especially strong parallels to Herlock Sholmes from Code Realize. Looks aside, they're both kinda but not really at fault for the death of a loved one. In Nacht's case it's his own brother. And in Herlock's case it's the wife of his bff John Watson. Oof. Both pretty much cut themselves off from their friend for years. When the friend duos are united, there's no anger or hatred, there's just the desire to see the "guilty" party safe, happy, and healed. Nacht and Herlock, two peas in a pod.

🍒 - What’s you favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!)

Maybe my brain is poisoned by modern media and the overuse of quippy characters but I do like writing character dynamics where the roles of "the sane man" and "the one being weird" is passed around in the group. I like when characters, depending on their situation, vary in their silliness/seriousness.

My favorite example of this would be the cast of Variable Barricade. Hibari, Ichiya, Taiga, Shion, and Nayuta all have moments of being sensible or being silly and clueless. One early moment for the whole group is when the guys try to host a barbecue but EVERYTHING goes wrong because Nayuta keeps barrelling Ichiya over, Shion pours oil on a fire, and Taiga kicks over the grill that is on fire while trying to put it out. And poor Hibari watched in poor horror before destroying the men verbally for their incompetence. My favorite moment for the whole group.

But later on, when Hibari and a given love interest are acting in quite infuriating ways (I'm looking at you Nayuta route!/lh), the others guys step in to try and get things moving along more smoothly.

🫐 - What’s your favorite underrated thing in your fandom? (A ship that only you seem to write for, a character there’s almost no fics about, a trope that criminally hasn’t been written yet, etc.)

Nacht's friendships aside from Yami and Asta in the Bulls. I very much believe he'd be close with people like Finral, Gordon, Grey, Nero, and even Henry. (And maybe I'd even like a romance between Nacht and Finral that's something else.)

I see reasons for Nacht to befriend all of them. Nacht and Finral share the stress over seeing their squad be so destructive. Gordon and Nero's histories are painted by Forbidden Magic similarly to Nacht. And then Grey and Henry are amongst the sweetest and least judgemental of the crew (Gordon is that way too) and Nacht could from their kindness (as well as benefit from it).

[kcuf-ad]

Happy birthday Kcuf, I hope your day is full of all the things that make you happy. I like to read your story and headcannon for yuno and charmy relationship. I would like to ask for your headcannon regarding the gifts that Yuno will receive from his friends. Thanks!

Eyy, thanks man, happy to hear that.

Yuno has Like...4 friends in Canon if you don't include Asta, so I will have Black Bulls and the Golden Dawn give him a present each.

William would give him a bonsai tree.

Yami and Vanessa give him Sake and Wine

Langris and Alecdora give him a Do Better card.

David would gift him a Wind Style Dice with Letoile shaking her head.

Siren would probably make him a statue of Hage Village.

Hamon would give him a cookbook of all of his favourite food.

Klaus and Mimosa would go out of their way to make the best possible gift, something for him to enjoy and they gift him a locket od the Golden Dawn and one more for someone else.

Gauche will let him look at a picture of Marie for 10 minutes.

Gordon would make a puppet of Yuno For himself, and give him a copy and the rest of the Black Bulls.

Zora would prank him by throwing a stinkbug at him.

Magna gives him brass knuckles

Luck just wants to Throw hands with him and so they do with Yuno being the one that won.

Secre gives him a picture of Tetia and Licht.

Grey would just freak out and transform into Father.

Henry would just be chillin

Finral would gift him a handwritten letter that he made everyone sign.

Nacht would give pictures of Loyce and Ciel

Asta would give a friendship locket for his rival

Charmy? Charmy would make the biggest cake known to mankind, the size of the Raging Black Bull with every flavour he likes as its own layer and on top would be the most beautiful sculpture of Yuno on it