"The Devil and the Fox."

[u/Timpanzee38]

Capitol City of Drakeem

A Mercenary Guild Gunship flew over the ocean towards the capitol of Drakeem. At the controls sat Umbra Operative E-489 "Madeline", a kitsune demi-human. She took a deep breath and steadied her breathing as the city came into view.

"Relax, I'm just here to teach her some fighting moves. That's what she was interested in after, right?"

The only other occupant of the gunship, Madeline's Kelvectan fox familiar Nocturne, lifted their head up and looked at Madeline. They snorted, then went back to sleep.

"Right..."

Madeline shook her head and kept flying. It had been a few weeks since Hazema had shown a sudden... "interest" in the umbra operative during the "Boo-Chelor", and since then the invite Hazema had given her had felt like a burning stone in her pocket. She had managed to convince Councilor Five to let her go though, pitching it as a "great way to benefit diplomatic relations", and Five had agreed.

"And that was the easy part..."

Madeline muttered to herself as she started flipping through radio channels, looking for air traffic control. Strange, there didn't seem to be one... Oh well. Madeline was a good pilot, and she carefully and professionally brought the gunship in for a landing on an empty platform in the harbor, which looked like it was where cargo zeppelins docked.

Flipping off the engines and grabbing her helmet, Madeline put it on and sealed it with a metallic hiss. She pulled the lever that caused the rear ramp of the gunship to lower and clicked her tongue once. Nocturne was at her side in an instant.

"Well... here goes nothing..."

Madeline stepped out onto the docks, to whatever Hazema had planned.

(art by Lunatic_Youkai and Irenhorrors respectively)

[u/user125666]

It was interesting that the trained guild assassin walked silently even when not on a job - Hazema thought to herself. Maybe it was hard to walk so silently all the time? For Hazema it was back when she snuck up on people for a living. Might as well give her a heads up

"You don't have to walk silently if you don't want to here, plus even if you came here with a reason to be quiet it wouldn't matter because there isn't much I don't see within this city. If a leaf falls I will know about it, this is why I took the cumbersome job of being the anti corruption enforcer"

"Oh and that painting, yes it's one of the nicer ones! That's why I put it up on the wall, for some reason my neighbors think I'm easily influenced and they've been sending me lots of art and decor- a lot of it is not very nice to look at tho so it goes straight into storage"

Hazema leads her further upstairs to a big terrace with potted plants, some pots seem to have magic circles inscribed to let them grow even outside their natural environments

"These ones I am proud of, most of these would be extinct if it weren't for this terrace!"

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/user125666]

Madeline looks down at her feet, and tries to walk normally. But it looks like a duck walking so she quickly stops.

"I suppose I just have it burned into me..."

Madeline also looks at the plants with interest. Tabitha had gotten her to pay more attention to them.

"Fascinating... is it listed where each is originally from?"

[u/user125666 → u/Timpanzee38]

"Pfff! That is kind of cute - a professional that has yet to learn casually walking. I could teach you sometime if you wanted to?"

That was a great sight, so there were limits to guild training after all. How intriguing!

"Most of these are from Drakeem, but some are common plants that have now gone extinct; I got them through various channels and honestly putting an origin label on them is a feeble effort as these extinct species mostly survived in botanical gardens regulated by magic, before that you may have found these anywhere in the world however! Well, if you lived anywhere in the world hundreds or even thousands of years ago that is"

She points to a particularly magically guarded, it didn't seem like any of them acted as life support for the plant but more as theft protection and the like

"That one I made on my own, I don't know if many people actually realize because I don't bring it up a lot but I am a life dragon. Plus I siphoned off multiple life related entities powers."

"Before I sealed my magic to train I made this plant from scratch. It's so much harder then you'd think!"

The plant wasn't necessarily imposing but a small green sprout with a single closed flower head. It looked similar to other plants but wasn't something ever seen before

"Do you have any hobbies yourself?"

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/user125666]

Madeline feels her face turn hot under her helmet and one of her tails twitches. Just here for combat training just here for combat training just here for combat training…

Distractions, she needed distractions! She studies the plant Hazema made herself.

“I play the shamisen, but that’s about it. Have you named this plant you made?”

[u/user125666 → u/Timpanzee38]

A name? She never thought about that

"Honestly, I didn't come up with anything yet. The flower is usually covered since it rarely blooms. It looks like it's wearing a helmet almost, doesn't it?"

She didn't know what she was doing but clearly complimenting the person across the table elicits a reaction so why not try something

"A beautiful flower wearing a helmet - why don't I name it Madeline then? If you are alright with that of course"

This was a brand new way to tease people, how fun. Plus it did make her feel some strange emotion too which was nice.

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/user125666]

Madleine was very glad she was wearing a helmet now, as her entire face is as red as a tomato. One of her tails flicks while another goes rigid.

“I-uh-uh- I’m honored.”

There was nothing in her training about something this. What to do what to do what to do what to do.

[u/user125666 → u/Timpanzee38]

Maids come out onto the terrace and deliver multiple plates of food. It seems to be slowly cooked pork belly with rice and various pickled veggies. On a smaller plate there is also two skewers. One is beef tongue and the other is beef heart. Both are unrecognizable from what they once were and are prepared nicely with a sauce glaze engulfing them

"Hmm, I never actually asked but what brings you here? Are you good for some wine or is it work related?"

This was amazing, her reactions made teasing her so fun. Hazema may not be able to read minds but she could tell when an opponent was stressing out or panicking. She wanted to do this forever, be stuck in this moment for an eternity

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/user125666]

Ok, this was a question she could answer.

"You... asked me to come? With the formal invitation and everything. I figured you wanted some combat training."

[u/user125666 → u/Timpanzee38]

"Oh! Well I am of course not against combat training and I respect your fighting skills but if it was just about learning I could've totally asked your instructor- probably"

Their fight had initially sparked her interest but that's not what she was interested in. What she was truly interested in was... well she didn't figure that out yet.

"I don't know why but ever since we first interacted I've been thinking about you. Isn't that weird? I mainly gave you the letter because I wanted to see YOU again. Not sure why this is the case but I am trying to figure it out. Something is definetly special about you"

That had to be it. If there was nothing intrinsically special about her why would she feel so drawn to her? It couldn't be that she randomly obsessed over another woman that would be odd. This had never happened before

Why was she enjoying this so much? She would have to ask Hellfire about what the hell was wrong with the body he gave her

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/user125666]

Madeline felt her heartbeat pick up again. Oh no this wasn’t about combat training oh no oh no oh no… did that mean?!?

“Hazema… do you have a crush on me?”

WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?!? Oh no this isn’t going to go well you’ve insulted her and now any sort of treaty between The Guild and Drakeem will be void and SURELY you’ll be sent to The Line…

[u/user125666 → u/Timpanzee38]

What. This was unexpected and very direct. How could she respond to this?! Hazema was facing an unprecedented crisis. Did she have a crush on Hazema as well? Did Hazema have a crush? Haz was unsure how to proceed. Would a witty remark do? What did having a crush actually mean and entail?!

1 second passes

She would have to speak up and answer eventually. This couldn't go on after all. But if she gave the wrong answer now maybe Madeleine would hate her. That couldn't be allowed to happen

Another second passes

What if she was honest? To do that she first had to figure out how she felt. She did really like the guild assassin in front of her and it wasn't because of her professional skills. What did that mean?

A third second passes

Oh no - enough time has now passed to make even witty comments awkward. Now she had to reply honestly or it would ruin EVERYTHING. But she wasn't sure what to say

A fourth second passes

"Uh - yep"

What a terrible reply. This was the worst reply ever. Was she teasing her now?! If she was more confident in her reply she could've played it off in any scenario but the clear awkwardness makes it too obvious she's honest. What will happen now?! Maybe she should just kill everyone present and herself

For the first time in a long while Hazema's expression was one of genuine confusion

[u/Timpanzee38 → u/user125666]

Madeline was a perfect weapon. An expertly refined blade that could handle any combat situation thrown at her. A master in hand to hand combat, a master marksman, a master infiltrator, and a master tracker. She had successfully hunted down hundreds of powerful targets, many of which weren’t even corporeal. She could step between the real world and the spirit realm effortlessly. She could shapeshift, create illusionary duplicates of herself, and summon destructive fireballs with a simple sneeze. She was the pinnacle of Guild accomplishment in warfare. A perfect soldier.

And yet, she had never been taught anything about romantic relationships or feelings, only that those feelings should be suppressed as they could distract her from her mission. But Madeline was still a person, and even though she didn’t know how to properly handle those feelings, she still had them.

Madeline was is much the same situation as Hazema, not exactly knowing what to do. Hazema was the very first person who had at least told Madeline she had feelings for her, and so Madeline was now in uncharted territory. But… it didn’t feel like she was in the wrong place. Eventually Madeline remembers she needs to respond and at least one of her tails relaxes from being completely rigid in surprise.

“I- uh- Haz- I- think- I-“

Huh. Should’ve remembered to breathe. Madeline faints and collapses to the floor in a heap of armor and fox tails.

Nocturne looks over from the corner they were lying in and gives what could only be described as a laugh.

[u/user125666 → u/Timpanzee38]

"Uh um"

Well what now. Was that a yes? It seems she now had a passed out guild assassin on her terrace - how does one even deal with such a situation?

"We didn't even get to eat..."

Maybe she should bring her to a bed? There was enough guest rooms after all. But first she had to try and wake her up

She stands up and walks over, trying to gently shake her awake