(Untitled)

[navyafterone]

Saturdays aren't as exciting for James as they are for most school kids. He still has morning classes, for one.

This Saturday is particularly unexciting. He's still doing laps before breakfast, and most of his afternoon was still spent mowing the lawns on campus, and now he's still got a pile of homework half as tall as him to complete

Comments

[candied_rabbit]

Ewww, homework.

Momiji, unfortunately, is similarly cursed, carrying his geometry and English books under one arm, as he flops down in a chair nearby James'.

The textbooks are promptly used as a coaster for his big, whipped cream-topped coffee drink.

[navyafterone]

James sees this and grins. It seems the other boy has about the right level of respect for textbooks.

"D'you have lots to do?"

[candied_rabbit]

"Oh...hi!" The rabbit-boy turns his head and smiles at James, shaking his head a little.

"Not a whole lot - just some geometry and some stuff to translate."

[navyafterone]

James offers a wave, still holding a pencil in his hand.

"Cool -- I've probably got a lot more."

He eyes his own pile dismally. His maths book, open to the pages on trigonometry, is propped up against the others. He shakes his head and looks back at Momiji; even maths requires a distraction sometimes.

"What languages are you doing? I've got some Russian to do, myself."

[candied_rabbit]

"It looks like a lot more," Momiji agrees simply, flipping open his textbook and showing it to James, the thing a mix of Japanese instruction and English passages.

"Just English."

[navyafterone]

"Bloody history essay's the worst," he says, poking at that notebook with his pencil.

He frowns at the Japanese book and looks sideways at Momiji.

"Well, that won't take you long. You're obviously fluent."

No one's told him about that part of the magic, yet.

[candied_rabbit]

"Mm?" Momiji blinks for a second at James, before giving into a small burst of giggles.

"No-o...that's just the translator thing, that the Bar has. It makes it sound like everyone's talking a language you can understand. I'm still not really fluent in English, without it."

Even without the translator, he could probably manage to speak slow, understandable English, but he's nowhere near really fluent at it.

[navyafterone]

James flushes red and bites down on an angry remark; he hates when people laugh at him. He tries to hide it by looking around (and gets distracted momentarily by the window, again).

"That's quite clever," he says a little grudgingly. "Does that mean everyone speaks different languages and you don't even know when? So you're talking Japanese right now?"

[candied_rabbit]

The blonde teen looks mildly baffled by James' flustered reaction, but he shrugs it off and just smiles.

"Yep!"

[navyafterone]

"Wow."

He's mostly recovered, now; but he'll be careful not to sound stupid again.

"--I s'pose I sound like I'm talking Japanese, then. That's weird, since I don't actually know any."

[candied_rabbit]

"Mmhm! But it's magic, so, stuff just works like that!"

[navyafterone]

"The magic here's still weird to me," James admits, and makes a face. "I get the Bar, and the way time stops, though that's more like Star Trek or something, but there always seems to be more, doesn't there?"

[candied_rabbit]

"Yeah. And even after you see a lot of the magic that's just the Bar, you still get to meet all the customers who have magic in their world, too! Or the Bar does something weird, like putting everyone in weird costumes."

Momiji is generally amused by the costumes, to tell the truth.

[navyafterone]

"It can do that?"

He glances over at the Bar with distrust.

"I did meet someone who came from a world with magic, though. Only magic in mine is the stupid stuff you get on streets in New York or whatever." He eyes Momiji. "Is there magic in your world?"

[candied_rabbit]

"Uh-huh! It does it, sometimes, on holidays...usually they're really silly costumes, too."

The young man shrugs, having adjusted to the outfit changes, for the most part, by now.

"There's only a little, in my world. One of my friends has a friend that has weird, magic-type powers, and my family has a curse on it, but that's all the magic I know about."

[navyafterone]

James wrinkles his nose. "Can't it just give us cake for holidays instead?"

Like a normal magic bar?

He nods a little cynically -- a friend of a friend with magic powers; sounds like school kids' boasting -- but his eyes widen. "A curse? What, did someone break a mirror or something?"