Bertrand's hopes had been right.

He got a full night's sleep devoid of any nightmares or any actual dreaming.

The downside of this was that when he woke up it felt like no time had passed by at all.

The upside was that he still felt rested despite not remembering sleeping.

He had even woken up at the exact same time as Césaire and Francois which was quite lucky, normally he would either wake up later or earlier than them.

This was one of few rare times that they all woke up at the same time.

“Morning Bertrand.” Césaire said once he noticed Bertrand was awake.

“Morning Césaire, morning Francois.” Bertrand replied, suppressing a yawn.

“Morning Bertrand.” Francois grunts out, his voice sounding significantly husky, maybe he got sick with something.

Common colds and basic ailments weren’t that uncommon for life in the legions.

Doctors only got involved when it was something crippling or life threatening, they were far too busy for much else.

After saying their greetings all three of them fell silent and not wanting to have the moment turn awkward Bertrand rakes his mind for anything to say.

And then it hit him, the mage.

Francois and Césaire were veterans but they also had a lot of work to do so even if they had access to information about the lightening mage it was unlikely they actually had the chance to learn about their recovery.

“You guys remember our first encounter with the watcher?” Bertrand asks, laying some groundwork for the uplifting news.

“First encounter? You meet a second.” Césaire chuckled out, amused at Bertrand’s choice of words for some reason.

“Oh piss off you know what I mean.” Bertrand said flipping them the middle finger before he realized what he had done.

On one hand it was nice that he had gotten so comfortable with his squadmates, on the other hand though, he had just insulted a duo of veterans and Seer was that rude.

Thankfully his poor manners only seemed to make Césaire more mirthful as their chuckles turned into a hearty laugh.

Francois wasn’t exactly laughing but he did have a small smile on his face at Césaire’s antics.

It took Bertrand a few coughs to get Césaire to stop laughing at him and allow him the chance to speak.

“The lightning mage who saved us back then is alive, I saw them walking back at the medical section in town.”

Bertrand’s words seemed to come as quite a surprise to his squadmates, with Francois having his eyebrows raised sky high and Césaire’s eyes widening so much that he looked like he had no eyelids.

“That’s brillant news.” Francois said happily, having recovered from his shock quickly.

Césaire took quite a bit longer to recover from his surprise though, and when he did he couldn't even speak coherently, he just laughed and said “amazing” and “thank the Seer”, unable to say proper sentences due to his overwhelming joy.

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It was quite the sight to see, even Francois was taken off guard by how strange his comrade was acting, staring at him incredulously.

Hesitantly Francois stretched out his arm and patted Césaire on the back a few times.

It was the first time Bertrand had seen them do that whole comfort thing to each other, he didn’t really know what to do in response to this strange situation so he did nothing.

He just waited until Césaire calmed down and wasn’t manically laughing anymore, before saying. “Family?”

It was the only thing that really made sense, why else would Césaire act so overjoyed?

So it came as a bit of a surprise when Césaire replied. “No, no not family.” Wiping his eyes while he answered Bertrand’s question.

Noticing their obvious confusion and concern, as well as probably realizing it wasn’t something he could sweep under the rug he elaborated on his behavior. “Just been rather stressed lately, same as you all. So the knowledge that our savior is still alive and in good health was overwhelming to hear and, yeah. Kind of freaked out a little at the good news, sorry.” They said with a sheepish grin.

“Alright, was just a little worried for a second that you had gotten poisoned just like Olivier.” Bertrand said, trying his hardest to sound reassuring.

Bertrand felt like any display of vulnerability required a bit of positive affirmation.

It was better to make sure someone knew that it was fine to let out their stress. Than say that they weren’t allowed to feel pain or fear, which more than likely would mean that all of their stress would get let out during a battle or some other important event.

“It’s normal to have a catharsis every now and then, no shame. Now how about we go and get some breakfast now?” Francois said, also trying to be reassuring and comforting.

“Right, haha heard that we’re getting served something truly special today, take a guess what it is?” Césaire answered back, sounding perfectly normal.

If it weren’t for his overly red checks there would have been no evidence of his short manical episode.

With an awkward smile, Bertrand hazarded a guess. “Soup?”

“Heh, yep, good old soup.” Césaire said giving Bertrand a thumbs up.

Getting a slight chuckle out of Francois thanks to their joke, a pity chuckle but still a chuckle nonetheless.

Plopping on his boots and grabbing his beamer Bertrand managed to be the second one out of the door. Somehow Francois had been faster than him at tying their laces.

They didn’t have to wait long for Césaire as they popped out of the tent half a minute after them.

And then all together the three of them set off to go get breakfast. Along the way though Bertrand’s mind kept drifting back to Francois’s speed at getting ready.

Seer the man had only started to put on his boots after Bertrand already had one of his on and yet he had somehow managed to finish before Bertrand could even lace up his second boot.

Figuring he might as well ask what the secret was he questioned Francois about his speed.

Francois just gave a very Césaire like smirk in return and said.”I don’t unlace them.”

He hadn't even considered the possibility of that being their answer, the prim and proper Francois didn’t bother to unlace his boots when he got back?

Bertrand had to give it to them though, it was quite an effective method that allowed someone to put their boots on extremely quickly.

Once they got to the cooking site Bertrand asked Francois if he had any tips on how to get some actual good food.

Electing a laugh from Césaire and a sad sigh from Francois.

“I wish, but other than gathering the ingredients for a meal and creating your own dinner, I'm afraid there's no other options.” Francois said, seeming genuinely regretful.

Bertrand felt a bit let down but he was only really questioning Francois about it just in case there was actually some secret on how to get better food.

It would seem there was no way to avoid the soup.

Against his expectations though, the soup was actually really good, the cooks must have used a significant amount of their spice stockpile to flavor it.

And so he dug in, devouring it in minutes and burning his tongue in the process, then after handing his bowl over to Césaire who had volunteered to take their bowls back, he left alongside a few linemen who shared his shift.