Chapter Text
"Brush."
"Hm."
"Cloth."
"Hm."
"Bucket."
"Hm."
"Mash this is Dot."
"Hm- Eh?"
"GET ME DOWN!"
Dot, held up by Mash by his cloak, was franctically trying to get out of his grip. After being brought down to the ground, and fixing his bandana while whining about not being a bucket (although his surname sure resembled the word), he looked at Mash inquisitively.
"What's up Smokey? Something happen?"
His concern was not unwarranted. Even though he was usually weird with his attitude and all, for the past few days he started acting strange: two days ago, in history class, Mash was staring into the infinite and didn't notice Mrs. Mevitable asking a question to him, prompting the teacher to throw a book at his head to gain his attention; the day before, in Potion Brewery, he accidentally threw Tumbleweed into a Benzoar anti-paralysis potion which the whole group had been practicing for the past few days, unleashing a chain reaction of explosions that left his hair spiked up and his face covered in black smoke (hence the nickname); and now, in Magical Creatures class, he kept giving the wrong things to Finn to care for the Owls.
Mash shook his head, looking to the ground. "No. Nothing happened. Thank you for your concern." Dot scratched his head at this, seeing Mash apologizing so weirdly to then just give his attention to a little owl baby who was demanding feed. The redhair looked puzzled over to Finn, to then call him out to talk privately in the other side of the barn.
"You saw that right? He's so out of it. Like, he's normally an airhead. But something's not right. Anything to report?"
"It's been going for days now." Finn nodded, and grabbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. "Some days ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I saw Mash sitting on his bed."
"He's not sleeping?"
"Yeah, he is. Or at least, he goes to bed and wakes up in the morning at his usual hour. But it's been going on for days." Finn looked concerned at Mash, who was now feeding a large group of Owls, and had the little chick on his head. "I didn't ask anything, because I was very tired. But I kept waking up again in the middle of the night with this chiling sensation, to then see him again sitting at his bed."
"What did he look like?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't see anything. It's always dark, and then again, I'm half asleep. I thought I was imagining it, though yesterday I saw him go to the bathroom for a minute, and then just going back to sleep." He shrugged.
"Maybe he's worried about one of his muscles? Y'know, the few that he named. What was it... Marvin?"
"Kevin."
"Close enough."
"No, I don't think it's about them. He hasn't complained about the training routine or anything."
Dot looked to the ceileing for a moment, leaving Finn confused. Then he scooted up closer, whispering even lower than before.
"We need you soldier. For a special mission."
"What?"
"Spy on him."
"Why would I do that?"
"We've been talking about it, Lance and I, when Lemon was crying the other day about being stonewalled by Mash too. We need you to spy on him, you're his roommate. And you're saying he's acting weird at night? There must be something." He then paused, and his eyes grew wide to then close with a malicious smile. "Maybe he's just slushing it ou-"
"OhmygodSHUTUP" Finn whispered franctically while covering Dot's mouth with his hand. "Maybe he's just using the bathroom like a regular person! You know he's strange enough as it is!"
"Yeah but maybe..." Dot smirked. "He's just going on manual override."
Finn was absolutely mortified, while Dot began laughing like a maniac. This caught the attention of Mash, who looked at Dot and then at Finn with curiosity. The youngest of Ames just buried his face in his hands and muffled a scream, having now that picture in his head.
Before long, Mr. Abraham called in everyone to finish the lesson. Right now there were more pressing matters than worrying about Mash's strange attitude,attending that day's last class: Practical Defense.
---
Professor Lucci had been ruthless with training. After the whole Innocent Zero fiasco, the staff at Easton saw fit to reinforce combative and defensive tactics in fighting and trying to bring out the best out of every personal magic user. It was at times like these that Finn truly envied his brother: his magic, opposite to Rayne's, was purely situational and support-styled, so he always ended up paired with someone most of the time (unless the lesson specifically focused individual self defense with universal spells, like Nalcom). This time was no different, as he was paired up with Mash to watch out his possible injuries result from his physical-focused fighting style, and to assist with utilitary spells needed.
Today's lesson consisted on awareness: Lucci conjured isolate training grounds for the students to focus on one task: removing an Goblin camp inside of the forest. Having exactly two hours to complete the objective, the students had to successfully locate where the nest was and erradicate it completely. These creatures were not a big deal alone, however in big groups, Goblins were said to be a nightmare, and that's why their population had to be closely watched.
With Mash's incredible speed and strength and Finn's practical knowledge of situational spells, in just about an hour they had discovered the general location of the nest. Now all that was needed was to exactly pinpoint where they were and burning down their entire base.
Finn was the one leading the march. He had casted Revelio, which had uncovered light footprints from the Goblins pointing to a nearby large tree, and both him and Mash were following the trace. As the footprints began concentrating more, they slowly approached the tree hiding behind some bushes, where they finally distinguished the camp and the little Goblins making rounds.
"Alright, listen." Finn started, looking at the monsters. "Just like they taught us. We need to measure the length of the camp: it's rather small. But it gets into the tree, so there might be more Goblins underground. That makes it a middle-tier colony. They might have ground defense mechanisms too, so watch out for traps or spikes. Okay?"
Mash did not answer. Noticing Mash's lack of response, he slowly turned his head, to then hear a loud "THUMP" and finally see Mash's head lodged inside of the tree they were hiding in.
"What the-" Finn's eyes were wide open, and his mouth was agape in confusion. He snapped back into the camp, where he saw the Goblins had seen them, and were chanting war cries. "Watch out! Nalcom Pass!" He screamed, as their cover had been blown by Mash making a loud noise.
What followed then was an unexpected amount of Goblins coming out of the tree. Finn was right, the colony wasn't tiny, but he had underestimated the quantity of monsters that were hiding inside. As the Goblins began lounging themselves at the duo with all they got, Mash pulled out his head out of the tree trunk and began kicking the creatures into oblivion, while Finn sent them to God same day shipping.
"They're too many- there must be a commander!" Goblin Commanders were a rare kind of Goblin, which more than tripled a normal one's size and had significantly more strength and resilience to magic. Finn's fears became reality when they heard a loud roar, and the big tree trunk snapping in half when the Commander emerged from the ground, waving around a giant chained morningstar. With a quick whip, the Goblin leader bashed the morningstar at Mash, who barely missed the hit by a few centimeters. His fighting was off, though, as some hits that he could have easily prevented did brush them and make some cuts on his skin.
The two of them began waltzing around, with Mash trying to get close to hit the Commander while the latter defended itself from any attack and kept the distance. Finn was occupied offing the offspring, which had alarmingly increased in number after the big one appeared. Having received various cuts from the weapons he had barely missed (and unable to cast Changeas due to the sheer amount of Goblins present), he started retreating to a closer position to Mash's.
Commander noticed that, while the black haired one was strong, the skimpy one didn't have that ability to dodge that much. After getting enough distance from the musclehead and making sure there were Goblins keeping him occupied, the Commander's attention drew to Finn, who was already being cornered by the little Goblins. Finn noticed that the Goblins suddenly ran away from him, as he turned around to see the leader swinging his morningstar at him.
"MA-"
Everything happened fast.
There was a loud PUM! coming from a near place, as if something very heavy (tones wise) had fallen to the ground.
The morningstar never touched Finn. Didn't even get close. In fact, instead of hitting him, it broke into pieces and flew away...
Along with the Commander's head.
Finn watched as Mash, with a single punch, had destroyed the morningstar and had decapitated mercilessly the huge enemy.
His golden eyes, which even in precarious situations were always calm... Screamed murder.
It was a mater of time until all of the Goblins had either scrambled or ended up like their former leader, however Finn was distraught all the while. He had never really thought about it. Mash was inhumanly strong, and had the ability to punch anything into non-existence, just as he had demonstrated with the big Goblin. But what he was concerned the most about was about that killing gaze which chilled him to the core. He had never seen him this angry, and that worried him. However, that feeling dissipated when after obliterating the last one, Mash sat on the ground with his legs crossed, sighing heavily after the intense fight. That's when Finn noticed he was bruised and cut all over, with even a tiny spear lodged in his left leg, and came running to his aid, kneeling next to him.
"Stay still. Changeas Secondth."
His second line appeared as he summoned Butterfly Sanitatem. With both his wand and his left hand focusing on Mash's body, his healing magic began to work: a soothing sensation ran through Mash's entire self as each butterfly-shaped magic summonings perched themselves on the gashes and cuts all over, to then disappear along with the injuries.
As he focused on his arms, he noticed Mash didn't have his wristbands on. "Wait, where are they?"
"... I took them off."
"Why?"
"..."
Finn sighed heavily. "I know you're strong. But please, be more mindful. I won't always be there to heal you." Finn said sternly, to then look at Mash and realize that the boy was staring at him intensely. Finn's own widened as well, as a tiny blush covered the top of his cheeks. "W-what are you looking at? I can be concerned too, you know?" He looked back down at the injuries, with a pout. "Geez."
In some seconds, all of the injuries had banished. Mash looked at his fist, pumping it close and open, testing his condition. Having a moment of clarity, Finn took the chance.
"Hey. I wanted to ask something."
"Hm?"
"Is there... Something troubling you?" As he waited for an answer, and saw that Mash was just looking at the ground quietly, he quickly kept talking. "I mean, you seem a bit distraught. Have any creampuff batches gone wrong? Haha."
Mash looked to his side, hiding his face. "I'm ok. Don't worry."
Finn was 90% sure that was bullshit. However, instead of pressing the topic, he decided against it and just helped Mash up to then call back to Easton's training grounds.
One thing was for sure: he had no other choice. He had to follow Dot's advice, for once in his life.
He would spy on him.