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Hannah has gone through her fair share of potential meisters. It just never works out, and she's long accepted that the problem is her. She's just... not the kind of weapon who matches with people. Not every meister has said it directly to her, but they've all expressed it one way or another.
She's not easy to wield.
She's not worth the effort of learning.
Her soul doesn't feel right.
Her affinity wouldn't be very powerful anyway.
And it's fine. It's okay. It's just not in her future to be a real weapon, but she can do other things. These past few months, she's been supporting efforts to help meisters and weapons meet each other. She's got decent management and organization skills and at least she can be useful this way. At least she can help other people build strong partnerships, even if it's not for her.
Meet events for meisters and weapons used to be fairly small-scale, usually limited to Hunter agencies trying to force their unpaired members together, but now they're large collaborations between both agencies and civic groups. There's a lot less pressure and discomfort for the attendees, and the events being open to non-meister humans also encourages attendees to feel more connected with their communities.
But the last one, the biggest event she'd been a part of the behind-the-scenes for yet, was different.
Because one of the meisters came up to her.
Even though she hadn't made any announcements or speeches. Even though she was standing against the wall, shadowed by a large pillar and holding her second empty champagne flute of the evening. Doing her best to ignore all the good things happening in the large assembly hall.
He walked right up to her with the intention to talk. To engage.
Not to thank her for putting on a fun event or to excitedly tell her that he'd found the perfect weapon.
"You're a weapon too. I can feel it. Why aren't you out there getting matched?"
"Oh, I'm not— I mean, I am, but…"
"Did you… do you already have a meister? Shit, sorry, I shouldn't have assumed—"
"No… no. Um. I don't… I don't have a meister, but… I don't…"
"You don't want to?"
"Well…"
Hannah looks across the large training room at Mane. He's still going through stretches and basic warmups. He's dressed in a tight black sleeveless shirt and orange workout shorts, his trademark vest set aside for the moment. He catches her looking and grins at her.
"Hey! You ready?"
It's been two weeks since that night. Well, two weeks and two days. Hannah wonders if she's still dreaming, but there's no way she could have dreamed the feeling of Mane's soul from the hours of meditation the two have devoted in order to learn each other's soul wavelengths. The intense warmth and power that has filled her every day for the past eight days whenever Mane holds her hands and they work on their soul resonance. The way he has her breathless and shaky after the first minute, and then his soul wraps around hers so beautifully and comfortably that she's actually embarrassed about how badly she wants to cling to him.
He feels right. He feels so good.
Mane's soul feels so perfect.
This can't possibly last.
"Hannah?" Mane waves at her, catching her attention again. "Hello? Hello?"
Hannah manages a laugh that she hopes covers up just how anxious she is about this. Probably not, since Mane can literally sense her soul, especially at this close proximity.
"Yeah," she says. "I'm ready. Um. Don't drop me, please."
"Bro," Mane says, widening his eyes and placing a hand over his heart. "I would never. I'm gonna be so careful; you can totally trust me."
She wants to.
God, she wants to.
She pushes down her nerves and steps closer. Extends her hand to meet his.
Even if this doesn't last, she wants to try. She wants to try, she wants to believe in Mane and trust him and be a real weapon again. She wants to be a real weapon so badly that she could barely sleep last night, after Mane had eagerly told her that he thought they were ready to attempt practical resonance with her in weapon form.
She feels the initial warm contact with his soul. And for the first time in months, Hannah breathes out steadily, and changes into her weapon form.
Her body changes as easily as if she'd never stopped.
It's…
It's kind of weird to be in this form again after so much time spent in human form. It's not like it should feel different to Hannah— this is literally still her. If anything, this should feel more natural than being in human form. She's a poleaxe, and this is genuinely what she truly looks like: sleek rose-gold shaft with a red axe blade, counter-balancing hammer, and spikes at either end. A decorative rose and thorns are set into the side of the hammer, inset with a glittering pink gemstone.
"Nice," Mane says. He turns her in a smooth circle in front of her, and if Hannah wasn't in weapon form, she might have cried over how nice it feels to be held by someone who has an idea of how to hold a polearm. "You look good."
"Thanks," Hannah says.
It won't last. It's nice, but it won't last—
"You feel tense," Mane says. "What's wrong?"
He swings her in a controlled motion, settling into a defensive stance. Moves fluidly into an offensive stance. Another offensive stance. His footwork is almost perfect, and he's holding her right, he's holding her right.
Hannah tries to relax.
"It's…" she hesitates. "It's just been a while."
Mane hums quietly. "You've got really good balance. It'll probably get even better the more we practice."
"You think so?" Hannah says.
"Bro," Mane says. He holds Hannah out in front of him, in a simple defensive stance that Hannah knows would give him plenty of angles for attacking and disarming an opponent. "Your reach is insane. I've practiced with, like, inert mid-range weapons before and it's— this is so fucking cool. You're the first polearm I've ever met, and you're fucking great."
Hannah is so glad that she can't visibly show how affected she is by Mane's words. She tries to lean into the breadth of his soul in response: that warm and powerful energy that makes her feel so… so strong. Not too much, though. She's been told plenty of times that she's too much, that she can't find the balance between meister and weapon just right, and that's the reason all her previous partnerships have failed.
Mane had mentioned, the other day, that it's the meister's job to find that balance but— but Hannah is pretty sure some weapons are just difficult to work with. And she's one of those.
But Mane has already been working with her a lot. Maybe it might work…
"We're gonna be so tough when we go out for real and start fighting," Mane says.
Hannah listens to his words, allows his confidence and his soul to channel through her body along the length of her weapon shape and down to the blade and hammer at the end.
"Aw, yeah," Mane says. He sounds happy. He wouldn't be faking that, right? He's been so nice, and maybe after days of getting to know each other and getting ready for this moment, he actually means it. Maybe he actually wants to be partnered with Hannah. Maybe he's willing to put up with her, put in the work to figure out how to fight with her.
At least until he finds someone better.
They all do.
"Hannah," Mane says. "You think we can try for your affinity?"
"What, now?" Hannah laughs.
"Why not?" Mane says.
Oh, he's not laughing.
"It's light, right? Imagine how sick it would be to get it on the first try. I bet we can do it. We've been practicing resonance, we can match our soul wavelengths easy."
"Um," Hannah doesn't know what to say. She wants to play it safe, take small steps so she doesn't get her hopes up again but… but Mane wants to do this. He thinks they can do it, and he's so determined about… about all of this. At the very least, she doesn't want to let him down.
"Let's try it," Mane says. His soul feels happy where his energy is flowing steadily into Hannah. Once again, Hannah tries to let her nerves settle down so that she can try her best to match the sound and feeling of Mane's soul.
She allows Mane's soul to grow stronger in her weapon body. It feels like a little too much, but she doesn't want to stop. She lets it fill her whole being, tries to hold her place within it.
"YEAH!" Mane screams. "HANNAH, YOU BEAST!!"
Hannah gasps. The bright golden light filling the room fades away, but it was there. It was there!
"Fuck yeah!" Mane yells, swinging Hannah in a powerful arc.
He switches his grip on her, only to squeeze her weapon form close to him in a hug. Hannah still feels like she's buzzing with the aftermath of Mane's soul. She feels… she feels happy too. Hard not to when Mane swings her around in a circle like he's dancing with her.
"We're the greatest to ever do it!" he yells. "Dude, that's so sick. You're literally the best. We're gonna blow all those monsters away once we master this."
Hannah can almost believe it. She can almost picture it. She—
"See, Hannah? This wasn't so bad. You're so cool. And your shaft is huge— bigger than mine, unfortunately, but—"
Hannah bursts into laughter. A moment later, she's sliding to the floor, hand still clasped in Mane's but her weapon form gone as she laughs harder than she's laughed in a very long time.