-- Several Weeks later--
4 Months, 1 week, 6 days, 17 hours, 32 minutes until the Grail War
-Jeannes PoV-
Jeanne slowly dragged the pencil against the paper making sure not to tear through it. She glanced up and saw that Micheal was reading having taken a seat beside the whiteboard he had brought into her room. She looked at the whiteboard and the spot where the sentences she was trying to write had been. She refocused on her writing and a couple minutes later she said she was done,
"Alright let me look at it," Micheal said bookmarking his spot and coming over to look, "hmmmm…. close. You're still mixing up your 'p's and 'q's but overall really good progress for only a few weeks. Good job."
Jeanne felt the irritation at mixing up those letters be tempered a bit by Micheals praise as she smiled smugly. She watched from her spot on her bed as Micheal wrote another sentence on the white board. She had less than four months to learn how to read and write in english to the point where she could at be as close to fluent as possible. She thought back to her discussion with Micheal about why she was learning English instead of French,
"Because my mom is English and just trust me when I say that modern French is beyond idiotic." He had said flatly.
"Surely it can't be that bad?"
and holy shit was she wrong on that. Who the hell spells "bird" that way? Why was the literal translation for the word for kite 'Flying deer'???
So they had started working on her English a few weeks prior under the pretext of Micheal paying her a 'midnight visit'. Jeanne felt herself blush but shook her head and refocused on the sentences she had to write out.
She watched as Micheal finished writing on the white board and she narrowed her eyes making sure to memorize each letter in the order it came in. She nodded at Micheal who wiped the board clean and she leaned back down to continue writing.
-two months later-
2 Months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 15 hours, 48 minutes until the Grail War
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal swore and rolled under Jeannes flames as he felt the heat coming off of them singe the back of his coat. As he did so he pulled the trigger on his rifle three times and three ball bearings loaded with both an electrical charge and a penetration spell were fired from his rifle. His servant twisted her body to dodge to first two but used the shaft of her flagspear to deflect the third sending it burrowing into the ground. She crouched down as Micheal activated his eyes just in time to see her dash forward to slam her knee into his stomach sending him through one of the pillars in the training room.
He quickly pulsed his natural electromagnetic field with mana causing its alignment to shift making him to suddenly reverse momentum and throw him backwards right as Jeanne soared past him. He reset his field and twisted in the air firing off four more ball bearings which Jeanne managed to dodge three of, while the fourth she had to absorb the impact of into her gauntlet which knocked her back a bit. She quickly righted herself, shook the arm causing the bearing to pop out of the armor, and she summoned her sword pointing it at Micheal right as he landed. He quickly prepped a water spell and he slammed his fist into the ground creating a wall of water right as Jeanne fired off her flames at him. He knew that the water wouldn't hold for long and he quickly swapped magazines on his rifle swapping his nearly empty 25v Penetration bearings for the 40v semi-heated bearings. He felt Jeanne increase the intensity of her flames and saw her flames burning the wall of water he had conjured out of the corner of his eye. He slammed the magazine in place, racked a bearing, and pushed off from behind the wall right as hellfire burned through the water. He winced as he felt the rubber on his boots heat up but he landed into a roll and fired off several bearings three of which got through Jeannes guard leaving red hot dents in her armored corset.
"Those are new." She called out as she dispelled her weapons and crouched down clearly about to rush him again.
"Came up with them about a month ago actually," Micheal said back as he activated his eyes and saw that she was going to launch herself forward and slug him in the face pushing him into the ground and cratering it. He grimaced and realigned his field to move up and over Jeanne right as she passed under him. He fired off three bearings only for her to summon her flagspear and catch them in the fabric of the flag itself as she spun it in complex circles only for her to swing it around behind her with one hand, let go, and then catch it with the other as she swung it into Micheals side. He coughed blood as he shot back from the strike and sailed clean through a pillar.
"and thats match!" His mother said over the speaker to the training room. Micheal finally let his body relax and he crumpled amidst the rubble of the pillar as Jeanne jogged over to him looking worried. He smiled at her and she winced causing him to guess he had blood all in his teeth. A few seconds later Amelia had healed the biggest injuries on him and tried to heal Jeanne only for her to decline citing her curse. This surprised Micheal as he didn't even think he got in any good shots on her.
"Alright. You should be fine to move around. I've healed what I can but you'll still have a cracked a rib or two so take it easy for a while and you should be fine. Oh and Micheal?"
"yeah mom?"
"Actually take the damn healing meds this time. Jeanne dear?"
Micheal groaned and sat up as much as he could as he watched Jeanne turn to look at Amelia,
"You're fine to go with him. I know you can take care of yourself now but still be careful," Amelia looked between Jeanne and Micheal with a serious expression, "Both of you. Neither I or Desmond will be there to help you so you'll have to take care of each other. Also Micheal when are you going to summon your servant? You leave in just under two months!"
Micheal coughed a bit and winced at the sharp pain in his side,
"I already told you that I'd be summoning them on site. I don't know what kind of craziness I'd summon in France using blind luck and we both know how my luck usually turns out."
Jeanne let out a single snort of laughter only to turn it into a poorly disguised cough as Amelia frowned at Micheal. He waved away his Mothers concern and tried to stand up as Jeanne started to move to help him but he waved her off as well. He wasn't graceful but he could move on his own. He looked at Jeanne and arched an eyebrow,
"I think someone was holding back."
Her face reddened and she muttered something he couldn't hear but he decided to let it go. He gingerly moved to the exit of the training room and hopefully towards some high strength pain killers.
-a month later-
1 Month, 0 weeks, 6 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes until the Grail War
-Micheals PoV-
Micheal sighed and closed his suitcase feeling his barely healed ribs as he did so. He gingerly rubbed his side and then sat down on his bed to look around his room. Aside from the dresser, bed, and some of the furniture his room had remained mostly unchanged since he had woken up from his coma eight years prior. He thought back to everything that had happened since then and smiled a bit as he went back through his memories. After a few minutes a knock sounded on his door,
"Come in- Oh hey, Jeanne. You ready to go?"
Jeanne nodded and put a hand on her hip as she looked around the room as though memorizing it. She was wearing a crop top band shirt from some rock and roll band from the United States and jeans. Other than that she was virtually unchanged physically from the moment he summoned her. As for him he had finally stopped growing at a solid 188cm. He had also put on a bunch of muscle as well thanks to the marine training he now did out of habit. He stood up from his bed and stretched wincing as his ribs lodged another complaint with his brain.
"I never spent much time in here…" Jeanne said walking around a bit, "You'd think with all the hints your mother was dropping she would have told me to just come in here at some point."
Micheal decided not to answer that question. All their english lessons had taken place in her room after midnight per her request. She had recently passed the testing for the level below fluency for english reading and writing a few days prior. He glanced over at the almost empty dresser and smiled a bit as he saw the photos on top of it. He walked over to them and looked at all of them. He sensed that Jeanne had come up next to him to look as well. He pointed them out one by one,
"That photo was when I was finally discharged out of the medical wing after getting out of my coma." He pointed at another one, "That one was my 15th birthday. My mom got drunk and decided to teach me how to mix drinks."
Jeanne leaned in to look at the photo he was pointing at more closely and brushed some of her hair behind her ear. Micheal felt his face heat and quickly pointed at more photos to distract himself. Not long after they got to the final photo which Jeanne made a happy humming sound upon seeing it,
"And thats the photo we got taken when I passed C1 English." She said picking up the frame with the photo in it. She stared at it for long enough that Micheal was about to ask what was wrong when she put down the photo and looked in a direction that Micheal wasn't, "….thanks for being in the photo with me."
Micheal felt his eyes widen a bit but smiled and nodded, "Of course. You did an excellent job. So thank you for letting me be in the photo with you."
Jeanne turned her head to look up at him and opened her mouth to speak when a knocking sound came from the door. They both looked over to see Amelia wearing the smile she used when she thought she caught them having an intimate moment. Jeanne coughed awkwardly turning away as Micheal turned away as well rubbing the back of his neck with a hand.
"Everything packed up?" Amelia asked as she walked in and rapped her knuckles on the suitcase which lifted itself off the bed and floated a bit off the ground, "You can't exactly come back here to get anything if you forgot it so make sure." She walked out of the bedroom with the suitcase trailing behind her. Micheal shook his head a bit and began to follow her when he felt Jeanne pulling at his shirt. He turned around to look at her and saw she was blushing,
"….Thanks for letting me pretend to be your girlfriend for the past few months." She said quietly, "When we go over to Japan...we'll be entering a warzone a month after we land so….I just wanted to say that. I don't need more regrets on top of the ones I already have…." She trailed off as she let go of Micheals shirt while he looked at her for a few seconds as she averted her gaze,
"Thanks for pretending to be my girlfriend Jeanne D'Arc Alter. It was a lot of fun."
Jeanne nodded silently and they stood there awkwardly.
Come on you dumbass frenchman. Make a move! You'd be a hell of a loser if you just let it end there. Come on! Do something!
Micheal internally braced himself for death as he stepped forward wrapping his arms around Jeanne who stiffened immediately. He didn't know how long the hug lasted but eventually Jeanne patted his chest with a hand and he let go moving back a few steps.
"I'm going to go make sure all my magic tools are packed….see you at the car?" Micheal ventured as Jeanne nodded still stiffer than a board. He sighed and turned around leaving his bedroom for what might be the final time.
-Jeannes PoV-
What just happened.
He hugged you and you were too much of a coward to hug him back.
Shut. Up.
Dragon Witch. Destroyer of France. The one who would kill God. Undone by a simple hug. Pathetic.
I AM NOT PATHETIC.
Jeanne began to walk out of Micheals bedroom as the 'Other' as she'd learned to call it just laughed at her,
Right~ Well its not like he'd ever think of you in the way you've started to hope he would over the past few months of this fake relationship when you're all alone trying not to sleep.
Jeanne froze and clenched her hand into a trembling fist
If you could just shut the fuck up and leave me alon-
Admit it: You wish that you'd been his real girlfriend. But we both know he'd never settle for some baggage ridden tramp like you and thats exactly what he'd be doing. Settling for the bottom of the barrel. You're just as fake as that entire 'relationship' was.
Jeanne grit her teeth and stalked down the hall,
At least when I don't exist I won't have to listen to you anymore.
Silence echoed in her mind as she went outside to the car.