SORRY BUT IT'S JUST A REALLY RICH CONCEPT JUST AS A BASE BEFORE YOU ADD TO IT
His whole life is a long, long series of self sacrifice and having to be useful. He needs to have a use or provide a service. He hates how much the Apprentice has to do magic wise and he feels useless. He's so surprised at the concept that they would care for him and help him just because. The bath scene where they take care of him? He's surprised but so happy, this man just needs some gd love without restrictions and requirements, without being used or sabatoging it.
When he tells them he loves them? And the "ha ha, you don't have to say it back".
But they do. They do say it back.
And then they strike up the deal with the Devil. His safety for their life. They sacrifice them self for the self sacrificing fool because love. That's his move and they beat him to it, he doesn't know what to do.
Not because he serves a use. Not because of something he can give them.
Scout leads him on your journey through dozens of realms, time means nothing anymore, it doesn't move right anymore, and he spends months? years? looking for them. Those feelings of "this is all my fault, all my fault, they deserved better, they deserve someone that could have saved them" circle his thoughts the whole way. He's driven near mad in desperation just to find them, see them again.
And when Scout brings him to what looks like a ruined and twisted Vesuvia and among the trashed streets and rubble is their shop. The windows are caked in grime and the sign is shards of wood but he'd recognize it anywhere and god he hopes he's finally found them.
And inside the room is full of broken furniture and glass, the hearth long cold. He feels the doubt creeping in until there's a rustle from the back room and the beastly form shuffles out. He can barely breathe, he found you he found you he found you after all this time. But they jerk away from his attempt at a hug. Tells him he's a convincing illusion, the most real one yet, really he is. But you won't fight anymore. The Devil has taken so much of you already, the illusions are already too much torment. You can't bear to fight anymore, you won't be anymore trouble. Just please leave, please stop.
Time doesn't move the same anymore, he can't tell how many days or weeks he spends trying to coax them from the back room. They won't let him through, just beg him to leave and stop tormenting them. The doctor is kind but he could never love a monster, even if he could find them one day. How many days and weeks, months, he spends just talking to them about their time together, hoping to jog their memories and convince them he's really real, he's really there, he loves them he would never leave them. Please just let him help you.
He cries but only where they can't see; the first day he had slipped up and it broke their heart to see him that way. How many illusions had the Devil sent before he found them? How many of those illusions had talked to them, cried in front of them, treated them to kindness just to twist and whisper cruel things to them before leaving or attacking them?
But the best part about angst?
Getting to a happy ending.
Eventually he'll coax them from the back room. They've cried a lot, he's cried with them. But eventually his words will take root. They come out, trying to be gentle in their monstrous form as they feel him over, he assures them he's real, no illusion could compare to the real thing darling. And he could never love someone more than he loves them, he's never leaving their side again Devil be damned. He'll spend the rest of eternity making sure they know this. That their family is out there waiting to see them again, they love and miss them as much as he does. It'll be the adventure of a lifetime, he promises. As long as he's with his love, there's nothing the two of you can't handle.
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