"Maybe here,maybe there, it's everywhere"

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“Lady Emilia is the one he’s dating, right?”

Garrett exhaled slowly, watching alongside Peter as Subaru and Julius sparred together in the courtyard. —Or rather, they had stopped sparring seriously a few minutes ago. Now they were more just roughhousing. “Yeah,” he said.

“Hm.” Peter was quiet for a moment. “I kinda thought…”

“Why, you little—!”

Julius had grabbed ahold of Subaru’s side, squeezing. Garrett could hear the ensuing laughter from where he was standing, clear as day.

“Yeah,” Garrett muttered. When he first saw Julius and Lady Emilia dancing together, he’d initially thought that Julius had cracked his skull open and decided that it was a great idea to start two-timing the Sword Demon’s new grandson. “Apparently, that was never actually the case.”

“Hm.” Peter nodded. “But — they sleep together sometimes.”

“Yep.”

“And they do…this…every single morning.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And Julius has been calling him ‘Subaru-chan’ for the past two years.”

“Yes.”

“Hm.”

The two men were silent for a long moment, just — watching.

“I didn’t actually think that one was interested in women,” Boris confessed, finally speaking up. “I was certain he was gay.”

Garrett didn’t disagree. For the past…however many years it had been, most of the Order had quietly assumed the exact same thing — whether Julius himself realized it or not.

Finally, they watched as Lady Emilia emerged from the manor, calling out to them both with a smile on her face. They watched as Julius perked up first, and then dragged Subaru up behind him before going to meet her by the entrance. They couldn’t see either of the boys’ faces from this angle, but they could see Emilia’s: warm and smiling wide. They watched as Julius quickly pecked her on the cheek — before immediately turning to Subaru and hugging him HARD, spinning him around as he squawked and flailed.

“Lady Emilia IS the one he’s dating,” Peter clarified. “Right?”

“…I think so.”

Lady Emilia hid her amused smile behind her hand, watching as her new boyfriend playfully tormented her lost love. Her shaking shoulders made her giggles visible across the courtyard regardless.

Boris sighed. “Well, if SHE doesn’t care, then…”

“Not like it’s any of our business,” Garrett muttered.