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"Henry!"
There you were again, with your bright, warm smile and genuine excitement to see him. When was the last time anyone was ever excited to see Henry? As much as Asta liked coming around to meet him, it was different from you. You, whose presence itself was like a spell of comfort, always met him like you had waited for it the entire time you had been away.
And maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, that you would want to meet him so much, but it made him so happy. That there was someone in this world who wanted to be around him freely. Everyone in the Black Bulls was kind and looked out for him, now that they knew about him, but nobody frequented his room as much as you did. You would visit atleast once a day, even if it sometimes took you a long time to find his room, except for the days when you were off on missions. Henry couldn't explain the empty feeling pressing on his heart on such days, where he spent every minute wondering if you were doing okay and when you would return.
You would always come back, relatively unharmed because your magic was more of the defensive type. But you didn't have a crazy amount of magic power and you weren't magic-less like Asta. This meant that every time you came to visit him, you would have to stay out of the doorway, far enough where he couldn't accidentally siphon your mana away. Even from that distance, he could sometimes see the cuts and bruises you sported, covered in salves or bandages.
You would tell him everything about your missions. Henry couldn't go outside and he couldn't go on missions but they way you vividly described everything, it made him feel like he was right there with you. You talked about all sorts of stuff, from the funny and crazy things the other members did to some of your personal feelings and thoughts. Henry couldn't help but feel a connection to you.
You were patient. You had to be a saint with the amount of patience you had; you had to, or else how would you be able to spend all the time you spent with him? Henry knew that he didn't speak fast enough or even at a normal pace, so having a conversation with him was not easy. But you always looked genuinely interested in what he had to say and waited for him to say it all. It had upset him so much once that he had nearly cried in front of you.
"I… just.. want… to… speak… pro-perly," he had grit out, frustrated with himself. Why couldn't he speak normally? If he kept doing this, wouldn't you get tired of him? "Don't… go… away… I want… you… to… always… stay…"
It was the closest he had gotten to revealing what he felt. That was the first time you had stepped inside his room, ignored the magic absorption and looked him straight in the eye up-close.
"I'm not going anywhere," you had said, a little breathless from the mana draining out of you. "I told you. Take your time and say what you want to. I want to hear it, and I won't go anywhere until I've heard it."
You eventually had to back off to your usual spot lest you blacked out from the mana loss. But that was the closest you had been to him and ever since then, he couldn't help but want it. He wanted to be close to you, to be able to talk to you like a normal person. He didn't want anything more– hoping for you to touch him was practically a fantasy that would never happen.
For all your kindness and compassion and genuine heart, Henry didn't think you could ever love him back the way he did you. And that was completely okay. He was fine watching you, feeling you from a distance – as long as you were happy and smiling, he would take what you were ready to give.
He just wanted to be able to talk to you properly, just a couple feet in between, instead of the large distance. For that, he needed to control his magic absorption. It wasn't like he hadn't tried (hadn't he been trying for his whole life at this point?) but your smiling face was a better motivator than any he had ever had.
He told Asta about his wish, the other guy already knowing about Henry's feelings for you. Asta had shot him a grin and a thumbs-up and said, "I have the perfect plan!"
That's how Henry started his secret training sessions with Gordon, Grey and Gauche. The latter had to be convinced a little but eventually stopped complaining when he realised that he could wax his poetry about Marie to Henry without being interrupted or told off while helping him out.
Every day, diligently, Henry put his all into trying to control his magic absorption. The progress was slow but he kept his goal in mind – it wasn't just you, after all. You were the first person he had wanted so badly to be close to, but the rest of the Black Bulls were also present in his head. He wanted to be able to enjoy and party with them too. He wanted to watch you be happy in their midst.
Henry practised on the three of them, aided by Asta's encouragement (which was mostly just yelling and doing push-ups in the corner as a weird form of training solidarity) and slowly but surely, his magic absorption zone reduced.
It took him months, but none of them gave up. Even on the hard days, when it felt futile, the rest would try to cheer him up. And then you would come, oblivious to the whole debacle going on under your nose. Your mere presence was uplifting. He could do this. If he wanted to be able to be around you, then he would have to put in effort. All that hard work for months culminated into him finally gaining control over his magic absorption.
The first time Grey managed to get close enough to press her palm against his own, the both of them had nearly cried. He did it. He managed to control it. All that time he spent on it had been worth it. Now all he had to do was wait for you to come to his room. He would surprise you for once, instead of it being the other way round.
You had surprised him with a gift on his birthday.
"It's not much," you had said shyly, handing him the scarf you had crocheted yourself. You had pressed it into his hands at the risk of draining yourself, "but happy birthday, Henry. I am so glad that you were brought into this world all those years ago. I'm glad I got to meet you."
He had been too choked up with tears to say anything. What could he have said anyway? Nothing could have done justice to explain what he felt about you. He didn't think he would ever get to hear someone say that they're grateful he was born. Frankly, he had never understood the point of birthdays until you said that.
Now, it was his chance to surprise you. To show you what you meant to him. The effect of your presence in his life.
•
The anticipation for you to return from your mission was worse than usual. He couldn't wait, feeling the impatience bouncing around inside him. When you finally appeared on the other side of his doorway, he sprang out of the bed as fast as he could. You startled but didn't step back.
You didn't know about his control. But you were willing to risk the draining effect if it was something so important to Henry that he was actually getting close to you on his own. Usually, he would be the one to tell you to stay away so if he was coming to you, then it meant it was something equally serious or important. So you waited– for him and for your magic to drain.
Except it never happened. With every step Henry took towards you, you couldn't feel the familiar feeling of mana being drained out of you. Your eyes widened in shock.
"I… learned… how to… control… it," Henry gave you a weak smile, walking closer until he was just two feet away. "Gauche… Gordon… Grey… and… Asta… helped… me… do it. We… prac-tised… for… months. I… wanted… to… talk… with you… closely… like… every-one… does. I… really… wanted…you…"
He cut himself off, cheeks pinking slightly. He couldn't do it. Even after all his effort, he couldn't tell you his real feelings. What if it ruined what you two had? What if you stopped visiting him because you didn't feel the same? Henry wasn't greedy. He was happy with how things were.
So he focused instead on whether you liked his surprise. He looked up, his light blue hair shifting out of the way as he took in your tear-stained face. Your hands were covering your mouth and you were shaking. Before Henry could ask you if you were okay, you wrapped yourself around him.
The sudden touch was overwhelming; your scent was everywhere and it was like all his senses were flooded with you, you, you. Henry nearly lost his composure and his control on the magic absorption was about to slip– but the mere thought that you would stop embracing him made him rigid. He held a tight grasp on the power; he was only controlling the magic through the sheer willpower of wanting to feel you against him. His mind was in shambles.
"You did it, you did it," you were mumbling, sniffing into his chest. Henry was sure that you could hear his heart thudding in there with how close you were. He couldn't see your face, only the top of your head but he let his arms wrap around you gently, like you were a fragile piece of glass.
All he had wanted was to close the distance. He had already gotten so much more than he had thought; you were holding him tightly, like you were scared he would slip from your fingers.
It felt like all too soon (and yet it had felt like forever) when you let him go and stepped back to look at him, your face flushed with embarrassment. Henry was pretty sure his face was much, much worse. He probably looked like all his dreams came true at once. (They did.) (You hugged him !!)
"S- Sorry," you mumbled, looking up at him shyly. Was it possible to die from seeing something too adorable? Henry felt close to it. "I should have asked you first, but… I have wanted to do that for so long."
All the practice confessions Henry had stammered through in front of Asta flew out the window at your admission. The way you were looking at him right now… Henry didn't need you to say anything out loud. For once, he let himself hope that you felt the same way– and he let himself believe it too.
"Me… too…"
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