how could this happen to me

(special hello to @simpingforthisonedeer btw love ya)

today i bring to you my favorite ship in Black Clover: Mort x Zora or, as I like to call it, Zort.

Now, you may be wondering: "What the fuck Ely you come back after a long absence an this is what you post??" Yes, yes it is. But let me explain, I do have my reasons.

A quick read on Mort's wiki page will reveal that he had 13 ex-wives: while most of them remain unnamed and are deceased, one is notably named Zora. And so, I found myself asking, "What if they got back together? What if love could spark again? Probably what ended their relationship was nothing but a misunderstanding, so couldn't it be resolved quite easily? It could take so little to make everything perfect again... So little..."

So, here I am now. I've spent the whole afternoon thinking and thinking, and I have taken a decision. Zort is the best ship in Black Clover, I absolutely love their dynamic and each of their interactions, and I truly hope that someday they will get back together. I am 100% sure their love for each other hasn't faded away, and that everything will be fixed. Tabata, please don't disappoint me. Zort is all I hope for at this point.

I am giving away art of TWO characters of your choice! Will be in my bean style, oc/self ship friendly. All you have to do is be following me and like and/or reblog this to be entered. Likes and individual reblogs count as multiple entries! I will keep this open until next Sunday, April 11th.

Thank you guys so much!!! I love you all.

notes: ah yes it is time for me to write hurt / comfort again because for some reason that is my default genre for oneshots. the inherent romanticism of cheering sad people up. Also listen to ending 11 of Black Clover when reading this because that's what I did while writing this and that's where all the pain comes from :')

genre: hurt / comfort, fluff

pairing: magna swing x reader

succor: an instance of kind behavior, lifting someone emotionally

summary: after returning from a failed mission, magna needs some support

There were few surroundings that prompted one more to brood over their life as a crackling campfire near the woods at night; the only sounds apart from the flames being the chirping of crickets and some owls hunting for prey in the distance. Magna Swing wasn't usually the type to brood over anything, as a matter of fact. His usual, lively demeanor was often what brought people back from a state of doubt or melancholy; it was hard to stay sad around him. But today his flames seemed to burn a little less bright than normally. Even the campfire, which he had lit himself, couldn't make up for that. It didn't give him any solace. His back leaned against his broom, the Crazy Cyclone, and his hands were linked behind his neck as he reflected on today's occurences. Yami had deployed him, Gordon and Finral to an emergency mission; an attack on a village in the Forsaken Realm, orchestrated by the Eye of the Midnight Sun. It was very similar to the assault on Saussy village, only that this time his opponents had been stronger. There had been other Magic Knights as well, some of them from the Purple Orcas and the Green Mantises. The Black Bulls were mainly ordered to help evacuating the villagers. Finral guided them through the portal safely whereas Magna and Gordon shielded them from incoming attacks. Apparently there had been a wedding in the town's church before the attack and the building was caught on fire. The guests were already outside and most of them had left the village through Finrals portal when the three of them received word of the bride and groom still being in the building. The flames were climbing higher and Magna, as the only somewhat fire-resistant mage around, decided to go in and rescue them. What he didn't expect was someone else waiting for him. A flame mage from the enemy forces, ready to charge at the already wounded newlyweds. Magna and him exchanged a few blasts of magic; the Black Bull was dedicated to protect the civilians. So why? When the other man sent another spell their way, Magna got ready to fire it back with his bat of fire, as he had done so many times. He swung it towards the flaming ball, his grip tight around his weapon and his feet steadily positioned on the ground. And then the unforseen happened. He missed.

The attack hit the frightened couple cowering behind him. The bride got out of the building with heavy burns on her right arm and shoulder. The already badly wounded groom didn't make it. It was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives. Because of Magna's mistake, for one of them, it was the last.

Magna knew this was what he signed up for when he became a Magic Knight. He wasn't the only one this happened to. One couldn't always save everyone and all of them were only human. Mistakes happened and they would continue to happen. Several of his squad members had experiences similar to his own; people they weren't strong enough to rescue. It was an accident. He was overwhelmed and on his own against a strong foe. Yet he couldn't stop the pain in his chest and the shivers that ran down his spine when he entered the infirmary room with the bride in it. He couldn't stop it, not when they told her the news, nor when she looked at herself in the mirror for the first time after she woke up. He knew she was hurt and had every right to feel angry and devastated. He knew she wasn't thinking clearly in that moment. And he knew he shouldn't let her words get to him. But he couldn't stop the tears running down his cheek when he remembered how she had looked him in his face, how her eyes pierced his coldly, and how her voice radiated disappointment and bitterness when she spoke to him.

"You shouldn't be a Magic Knight."

Magna knew it was an accident. That it happened. Other people experienced it too. But there was the quiet voice echoing in his mind that asked him: What if you had been stronger? What if you had been born with more mana? He couldn't help but notice how far behind everyone else he was. Even Finral, who often doubted himself and his usefulness, had gotten so much stronger since the battle at the Underwater Temple. He placed his fingers onto the warm leather of his jacket; where his robe should be. It got caught up in the blast at the church. Maybe that's a sign, he thought bitterly.

His train of thought got interrupted when someone gently wrapped their arms around his shoulders. His hand clutched the fabric of your Black Bull robe that you had placed around him, looking for comfort. "Finral told me what happened", you said quietly, squeezing his shoulders before walking around him to sit down next to him. Magna quickly wiped the tears from his face, not wanting to let you see him cry. He knew what your gesture meant. You were ready to give him your own robe, to show him you had faith in him as a Magic Knight. You were always there to pick him up. He was too. Ever since you joined the Black Bulls, the two of you had gotten along immediately and you were always there for eachother when one of you needed a shoulder to lean on. You loved eachother deeply, although not sure if you both did in the same way. Life was busy these days and you hadn't gotten a chance yet to tell him how you felt about him.

Magna still stared wordlessly into the fire, a reminder of how beautiful, yet dangerous his magic could be. You looked at him from the side, wondering what was going on in his mind right now and thinking to yourself that eyes as beautiful as his shouldn't be full of tears like these. Your arms wrapped around his side and you pulled him into your embrace, his head resting in the crook of your neck while you ran your fingers through his hair gently. He closed his eyes and his breathing got calmer. You could feel how exhausted he was. He was thankful for your presence, he felt safe and warm in your arms.

For what felt like an eternity you remained like this. Sometimes you weren't sure whether Magna was asleep or just silent. Your forehead was leaned against his and your fingertips were running up and down his back. "Am I... fit to be a Magic Knight?", he then raised his voice. Magna always seemed so confident and optimistic; always ready to surpass his limits just like Yami did. But you knew he had his fair share of insecurities about being a commoner from the sticks and naturally having less mana than others. "Am I holding the squad back?", he added. "Of course not, dumbass", you hissed, tightening your arms around him and looking into his blue eyes. Magna always wanted to be the hero who saved everyone; a reliable fighter with a cool ride that people could put their trust in. There were few things he feared more than being a liability to those he cared about most.

You lifted his chin up. "Never ask that again, okay?", you insisted, looking at him with a serious expression, "you're amazing, alright? You're always there to lift everyone up when they need it, you're a great teamplayer and you're probably the best support Asta and Noelle could have had after joining the squad. Every one of us adds so much to the Black Bulls, whether that's through their mana or other strengths they have. Everyone who's part of our team helps us fight and motivates us to become stronger. So how could you ever hold us back?"

Magna's eyes widened and you reached for his hand, firmly holding it in yours. "You're strong. I know you are. Look at where you started. You've come this far despite being a commoner and not having as much mana as most Magic Knights." Tears started to form at the corners of your own eyes. "And I-Ive... I've come this far because I had you by my side", you added with a shaky voice, "I'm not in this squad because of you but I wouldn't want it without you." You pulled him closer, your face pressed against the soft skin of his cheek. "I love you, Magna", you whispered, barely audible but enough for him to understand. A blush rose to his cheeks and he hugged you back tightly. "W-w-what are you talking about?! You can't just say that out of nowhere like this, y'know?!", he protested loudly with a flustered expression on his face and then quietly added, "...I love you too."

You could feel his heart beating rapidly while you hugged him and you let go of him, taking a look at his blushing face while he was avoiding your gaze. You couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, resting a hand against his cheek. "Feeling better?", you asked.

"There are other ways to cheer someone up, you know??!!!", he replied agitated, finally looking at you. Whenever his bad boy facade broke like this, you could see how shy he actually was when it came to things like affection and being close to other people. Your eyes wandered towards his lips, lingering on them. "Can I-" He nodded before you had finished, still avoiding looking into your eyes. You smiled and moved closer to him, gently placing your lips onto his own. It took a few tries for him to get the hang of it; it was clear he didn't really know what he was doing at first; but his kisses were loving and sweet. It felt like he could finally let go of his doubts and mistakes for a second and lose himself in your kiss, his tongue gently circling around yours.

"I love you", he said, this time louder, as he parted from you. It was more of a realization than something he consciously exclaimed, because he immediately went back to blushing and wishing he had his sunglasses with him so he could look at least a little more cool and composed.

You chuckled and took his hand, placing a kiss onto his forehead. "Don't doubt yourself again like this, alright? You've saved many lives before and I know you will continue to save lives in the future. You're a great Magic Knight and I'm proud of you", you told him. "Thank you", he replied gratefully.

So I may have been thinking a lot about a fight between Yuur (Yuno x Fleur) and Snakebone (Althea x Zenon) with some of the lore I've talked about on the server.

So of course my brainrot self had to draw a fight between these powerful couples, how could I not?

Hey Magna stans and people who just like his voice, I have created this masterpiece which is just 10 minutes of Magna's voice lines. Your new favorite ASMR

https://youtu.be/W55dhz8Uemk

Because we love him and he deserves the world.

Okay Magna is literally perfect boyfriend material

He’s loyal, he’s honest and he’s got a real heart of gold and a lot of love to give.

Magna being in love is… a mess. At least in the beginning. He has no real idea what he’s doing and he has no relationship experience whatsoever. But his actions are genuine and he always tries his best for you.

It’s likely Magna doesn’t even consider the possibility of there being anything romantic between you or crushes on you until somebody points it out. Either it’s you confessing to him or someone else offhandedly mentioning you’d make a cute couple (most likely Vanessa or Finral). If it’s you confessing he’d be a blushing mess and just be like “Oh… I haven’t really thought about that” and he’d ask you to give him some time to evaluate how he feels about you. If it’s someone else speaking of you two in a romantic context he’d just brush it off and deny it with a red face.

Honestly if you simply ask him out on a date he’d likely just roll with it and realize that this could actually work out during your time together or afterwards.

Because as soon as he’s confronted with the idea of you and him in a romantic context, he starts overthinking about this right after. Could he imagine dating you? Could he love you? He can’t deny the fact that you’ve intrigued him for a while now and that he enjoys spending time with you and seeing you react to things he’s passionate about (like his Crazy Cyclone) and that he thinks about you rather often but is that enough to consider you as a partner? Magna notices he isn’t opposed to the idea but he doesn’t have any strong feelings about it so he puts the thought aside for him to reconsider later.

But now that he’s aware of the idea of that, next time you do literally anything he considers praiseworthy or appreciates about you? He’s done for. His heart starts fluttering and he can’t help but give you a sweet smile. Within a matter of days he falls hard for you and you now live in his brain rent free. It’s almost frustrating how his thoughts keep circling back to you when he’s trying to do something else or when he’s around people and Vanessa keeps teasing him about his blushing face whenever she calls him out on having zoned out.

If you’ve already confessed to him he’ll come back to talk to you about this about a week later and confesses the full extent of his love to you. That is when his delinquent facade falls completely and he’s just trying to somehow bring the sentences out. His multitude of incoherent words ends with him just straight up yelling “I LOVE YOU AND I HAD TO TELL YOU BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT A REAL MAN DOES!” He’s very dedicated.

The rest of the Black Bulls from their hiding spot: 👀

If you haven’t confessed to him yet, man starts pining until you do or someone else puts you out of your misery by telling both of you

Seriously the others are genuinely invested in this relationship, especially Vanessa who started shipping it a while ago, because Magna is like, the Black Bull where it’s most obvious he has 0 experience with romance whatsoever

“S-so what do we do now? Do I like, take ya out for dinner or sumthin’?” 

Reply something along the lines of “Either that, or we could take your Crazy Cyclone and your firework cannon and blow some stuff up” and Magna.exe has stopped working. 

Starts asking himself where you’ve been all his life

Magna is the type to really brag about you. Literally the second he got over the inital shock and is reassured that you really love him, he walks into the hideout like “Yo Finral, you got any dates lately?” and then he tells him about you. 

So much teasing from Luck and Vanessa. 

“So the virgin delinquent finally got himself a partner!” “Who’re you calling a delinquent?!”

Vanessa won’t let him live it down. She constantly comments on how adorable you two are to which Magna replies “I’m not adorable, ask y/n, they know I’m a real man!” 

Tell him those aren’t mutually exclusive and that he’s both because he is. 

“T-tha- argh whatever…”, he hugs you and buries his face in your neck to hide how flustered he is

It takes him weeks to get used to being shown affection, especially compliments. Man chokes on his drink when you call him beautiful. 

He’s so happy though, his face lights up whenever you enter the room and he falls asleep with a smile on his face.

Yami jokingly says Magna looks like he’s seeing you walk down the aisle towards him every morning when you sit down next to him at the breakfast table. “You heard Captain Yami! I- h-hold on whaaat? C-captain Yami I-I-I think you’re exaggerating a bit here!” He’s not. That’s what Magna’s face looks like

Out of all the Black Clover guys, on a list of who’d make the clingiest boyfriend, Magna’s right up there in the top 5. He totally respects your boundaries and if you don’t want any PDA he can deal with that but if you’re fine with it, he’s all over you. He’s so touch-deprived.

Almost always has an arm wrapped around you when it doesn’t bother. 

Everyone around you can see that he’s got it bad. He’ll just look at you from the side while you’re like,,, reading a book or writing a mission report or something and his brain goes “god,I love them…”

Randomly pulls you close and nuzzles your cheek or gives you multiple kisses. 

Magna is the type of guy to never really get tired of you or anything. He’ll look at you like you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him the day you started dating and he’ll look at you that same way 5 years later.

Loves falling asleep with you. He’ll basically let you sleep over every night. He just loves holding you in his arms when he’s drifting off to sleep. 

Also absolutely the type to give you a forehead kiss or a kiss on the cheek while you’re sleeping. He thinks you look very peaceful and cute. Immediately pulls you closer to him when he wakes up at night. He whispers “I love you” and runs his fingers through your hair even though you can’t hear him and then falls back asleep snuggling close to you

He loves receiving affection from you as well.

Easily melts when he’s given kisses or hugs or massages and he loves it enough to not mind how much he blushes the first one or two months after getting together with you when you do that.

Magna lets you wear his jacket because he thinks it looks super pretty on you

You’re also one of the few people who’s allowed to fly his Crazy Cyclone. As his partner you’re privileged enough to use his ride! Actually thinks you look cool flying it

Magna as a partner is so much fun if you like doing funny bullshit that makes other people shake their heads at you. He lets you join in on any ideas he has, whether that’s playing pranks on Asta or setting stuff on fire that shouldn’t have been set on fire. If you’re up for being chaotic with him, he’ll appreciate the hell out of you.

He’s also really good at comforting you when you’re feeling down. He somehow always finds the right words to say and he has such an uplifting, kind demeanor when he wants to cheer you up that it’s hard to stay sad around him for long

Likes when you two just lean on each other in more quiet moments, whether that’s relaxing in the lounge after coming back from an exhausting mission, sitting outside and watching the stars at night or whenever you need a shoulder to cry on. 

If you ever doubt yourself and whether you can do something or whether he still loves you etc. he won’t leave your side until he convinced you. “Of course, you idiot”, he hisses and pulls you into a firm hug, similar to the one he gave Luck in the elf arc. 

I’ve said it in this post before but Magna can get so cheesy with his words, especially when you two are alone. Will tell you in detail about why you’re the love of his life and about how happy you make him. He says what he thinks and he thinks a lot about you.

Holds your hand when he’s scared excited on a mission. “Here, you can hold my hand, I wouldn’t want you to be scared after all. I’m a real man so I’m gonna protect you” and you just notice HE’S the one who’s scared but you’ve learnt to roll with it

Magna is really protective of you. You could be ten times stronger than him and he’d still try to protect you. He’d defend you both verbally and physically in a heartbeat. He’d literally fight god for you.

He gives very protective hugs too

After a while of being with you he’s not afraid to lean on you for support either if he needs it. He’s really thankful whenever you help him out

You motivate him to become stronger too! Whenever he learns a new spell or technique, he’s super proud of it and wants to show it to you. He’s so enthusiastic and confident about it, it’s hard not to smile along with him.

Gets super happy when you acknowledge and compliment him on his progress

Luck asks you to watch their fights because he has figured out Magna lets himself get challenged into a fight way easier knowing you’re there rooting for him

He will deny it in front of all the Black Bulls but Magna feels a lot about you and he wears his heart on his sleeve, so when he sees you sad or in moments where he’s overwhelmed with love for you he does actually cry every now and then.

Misses you rather easily and doesn’t mind you tagging along when he’s going somewhere. After leaving the heart kingdom to become stronger, if you want to come with him he’s not going to stop you. Quite the opposite actually, he knows he’s at his strongest when you’re with him and when he knows you’re okay. Being able to protect you is what motivates him to surpass his limits.

Another advantage of having Magna as your boyfriend is that he’s very easily excitable and entertained. If you show him any of your hobbies or interests, he’s happy to look into them but there’s actually a rather big chance he ends up finding them cool and talking about them a lot. Especially if it aligns with his own tastes. Show him your favorite songs, your writing, art etc. and he’s likely to be like “whoah that’s really awesome”

Also while Magna didn’t place very high in the intelligence ranking, doesn’t mean he isn’t curious or likes learning new stuff. Actually it’s pretty easy to get him excited with some facts about things he doesn’t know much about. He’ll be like “I had no idea” and starts asking you questions about it.

This is not the type of guy you can expect to have a deep intellectual discussion about god and the world with but he has really cute reactions to finding out new things

Magna also gives the softest, most passionate kisses out of all the Black Bulls. He pours all his love into them and they’re always so gentle and make your heart flutter

He’s so supportive of your dreams and passions and he tries hard to encourage you

Calls you “love” or “sunshine” as a nickname but like, with his usual slang and way of speaking (aka the cool delinquent attitude)