A Toast To Final Exams
Title: A Toast To Final Exams
For: A Ficathon Walks Into A Bar
Fandom: Harry Potter/Magic Kaito
Prompt: Luna Lovegood walks into a bar and meets... Toichi Kuroba!
Summary: English pubs always seem to carry some real characters, but Toichi seems to attract the strangest of them.
Word Count: 1315
Ratings/Warnings: K
Pairing: Slight Harry/Luna if you turn your head and squint
Disclaimer: I don't own this, at all.
Thanks to mancha_sama for Beta-ing! You're fantastic for putting up with my crazy!
Toichi's shoulders finally relaxed as he took his third sip of the stout ale before him, confident that not one of his 'bar buddies' had even noticed the difference. He carefully suppressed a smirk as he imagined the shocked looks those around him would be sporting after realizing that 'Ned' had been sick for the past day and a half and couldn't possibly have been pub crawling with them. Sending his mental apologies to the man he was playing as his personal 'final exam', the teenage magician turned his attention back to the people around him. It wouldn't do to slip up now.
Murphy took this time to step in and reassert himself, as incognito as the man he was disrupting. The Japanese teen was too busy faking a welsh accent to notice when his doom walked in to the bar, and was therefore surprised as a young woman around his real age sat down on the open stool next to him. After ordering the strangest beverage he'd ever heard (what was a 'Frightureberri Murzenquest' anyway?) she turned to him.
It usually wouldn't have been a problem, but there were a few details that changed that action from marginally friendly to nearly hostile, the first being the blonde's excessive and unrepentant arm movements as she swiveled towards him, and the second being his disguise's slow reflexes. The bottle that flew towards him wouldn't have usually presented much of a problem, in fact he would have turned it into some new trick if presented with such an opportunity under normal circumstances, but with all of these 'familiar' people around he couldn't possibly catch it without tipping them off.
His 'buddies' and a few of the other patrons shared a hardy laugh at his expense as he looked down at the spreading stain on his fraying jeans. As he was using multiple cocktail napkins to try and sop the worst of it up, the young woman finally spoke up, her voice carrying an almost nonchalant tone.
"Sorry about that."
Looking up from his task, he found her staring just past him, her large eyes open wide even as she offered him a soft smile. After making a show of looking in the direction of her gaze Toichi turned back to the strange young lady next to him.
"Are you even talking to me, missy?" The welsh tone was a task to keep up, but that was one of the reasons he'd chosen the target he did. She sketched a nod, but her eyes never left the air around him. Not wanting to associate himself with the insane when none of his 'acquaintances' really knew who he was, he kept up his act and turned back to the bar with a grunt.
"Luna Lovegood," came the same dreamy voice. Surprised that she was still going to attempt to have a conversation with a thirty-something man she'd just spilled a drink on, the disguised teen turned back to her, almost involuntarily allowing the personality to fall away just enough to raise an eyebrow. Her smile widened slightly as she actually focused on the movement before going back to tracing seemingly random patterns in the air with her eyes.
Interests piqued, this girl was far more interesting than those men behind him were, he scratched his beard and replied, "Ned Goffry."
He watched as her eyes squinted slightly as if concentrating on something before speaking up again, her voice more sure than he'd heard so far.
"No, I don't think it is. The Roehagikvots wouldn't be clambering around like that if it was." He could only blink at her as her bulging eyes finally landed on his. "What is it really?"
"What?" The foreigner barely remembered to ask in English, let alone the proper accent, but his 'friends' were deep in their cups by this point and could care less what he really sounded like.
Luna politely repeated her question, "What's your real name? They practically went wild when you mentioned that other one."
Now feeling as though he'd lost an important part of the conversation he asked, "Who did?"
"The Roehagikvots," she answered. "They're all over you so you must be hiding something big. They love to bask in that air of mystery it gives people."
Toichi stopped another blink before it could begin; he wasn't going to give in that easily.
He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "You're right, it's actually Nancent Belfry, but that would ruin me rep with the men so keep it down." Again he watched her eyes shrink to an almost normal size and her eyebrows come together a little in the front before she shook her head.
"No, I don't believe that is it either. But if you don't want to tell me, that's alright." She kicked her feet to swivel herself back towards her untouched drink and took a sip before turning towards the door. Not finding what she was looking for, she almost brought her eyes back to his before becoming distracted by whatever she had been staring at before. "If you wanted to keep it a secret though, you should stop thinking that it's a secret."
Checking himself once more for these supposedly rampant creatures, he hid a frown before looking back up.
"What do ya mean?" If there was something he could do to stop sending signals that he was lying, for she was obviously reading some tick in his body language as well as being slightly insane, he'd give it a try. It seemed like she was trying to be helpful anyway. She took another glance at the door before she sat her drink down.
"Stop thinking it's a secret, silly. The more of a secret it is, the more you try to hide it and the bigger the mystery gets. Thinking that it's the most natural thing in the world will keep them away," she explained. "The eyebrow thing is no secret, so they went away for a little, but then you itched your mask and they came back."
Toichi was lucky he wasn't drinking anything. How had she seen the mask? Stopping his thoughts before they could get out of control, he thought about it logically. The girl was obviously good at reading people, so it was a given that she would catch the small details, like the fact that his mask was slightly frayed at the bottom under the beard. She might be a few cards short of a full deck, but her advice could make sense if one decoded it correctly.
"So I should just accept the mask as me and forget the rest and it'll be fine?" The question was out before he could think twice about it and it took supreme force of will to stop the seventeen year old boy from slapping himself in the face for his mistake.
Luna just smiled as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be masquerading as another person, looked directly at him and nodded.
"See, now they're all gone! Well, all but that one that keeps tearing at your mask, but it should go away soon enough." Looking at the door once more, she took out a few silvery coins and set them down next to her glass. "It was nice meeting you, Not-Ned. Have a nice evening."
Never taking his eyes off of her, he watched her meet a young man with dark, messy hair and glasses at the entrance, greeting and giving him a hug before they both left. After spending a few minutes staring after them, he shook his head and turned back to the bar, intending to continue his charade only to see his 'pal' on the other stool looking at him strangely. Afraid the jig was up but unwilling to cede defeat, he asked defensively in his welsh accent, "What?"
"Your name's Nancent, too?"
For: A Ficathon Walks Into A Bar
Fandom: Harry Potter/Magic Kaito
Prompt: Luna Lovegood walks into a bar and meets... Toichi Kuroba!
Summary: English pubs always seem to carry some real characters, but Toichi seems to attract the strangest of them.
Word Count: 1315
Ratings/Warnings: K
Pairing: Slight Harry/Luna if you turn your head and squint
Disclaimer: I don't own this, at all.
Thanks to mancha_sama for Beta-ing! You're fantastic for putting up with my crazy!
Toichi's shoulders finally relaxed as he took his third sip of the stout ale before him, confident that not one of his 'bar buddies' had even noticed the difference. He carefully suppressed a smirk as he imagined the shocked looks those around him would be sporting after realizing that 'Ned' had been sick for the past day and a half and couldn't possibly have been pub crawling with them. Sending his mental apologies to the man he was playing as his personal 'final exam', the teenage magician turned his attention back to the people around him. It wouldn't do to slip up now.
Murphy took this time to step in and reassert himself, as incognito as the man he was disrupting. The Japanese teen was too busy faking a welsh accent to notice when his doom walked in to the bar, and was therefore surprised as a young woman around his real age sat down on the open stool next to him. After ordering the strangest beverage he'd ever heard (what was a 'Frightureberri Murzenquest' anyway?) she turned to him.
It usually wouldn't have been a problem, but there were a few details that changed that action from marginally friendly to nearly hostile, the first being the blonde's excessive and unrepentant arm movements as she swiveled towards him, and the second being his disguise's slow reflexes. The bottle that flew towards him wouldn't have usually presented much of a problem, in fact he would have turned it into some new trick if presented with such an opportunity under normal circumstances, but with all of these 'familiar' people around he couldn't possibly catch it without tipping them off.
His 'buddies' and a few of the other patrons shared a hardy laugh at his expense as he looked down at the spreading stain on his fraying jeans. As he was using multiple cocktail napkins to try and sop the worst of it up, the young woman finally spoke up, her voice carrying an almost nonchalant tone.
"Sorry about that."
Looking up from his task, he found her staring just past him, her large eyes open wide even as she offered him a soft smile. After making a show of looking in the direction of her gaze Toichi turned back to the strange young lady next to him.
"Are you even talking to me, missy?" The welsh tone was a task to keep up, but that was one of the reasons he'd chosen the target he did. She sketched a nod, but her eyes never left the air around him. Not wanting to associate himself with the insane when none of his 'acquaintances' really knew who he was, he kept up his act and turned back to the bar with a grunt.
"Luna Lovegood," came the same dreamy voice. Surprised that she was still going to attempt to have a conversation with a thirty-something man she'd just spilled a drink on, the disguised teen turned back to her, almost involuntarily allowing the personality to fall away just enough to raise an eyebrow. Her smile widened slightly as she actually focused on the movement before going back to tracing seemingly random patterns in the air with her eyes.
Interests piqued, this girl was far more interesting than those men behind him were, he scratched his beard and replied, "Ned Goffry."
He watched as her eyes squinted slightly as if concentrating on something before speaking up again, her voice more sure than he'd heard so far.
"No, I don't think it is. The Roehagikvots wouldn't be clambering around like that if it was." He could only blink at her as her bulging eyes finally landed on his. "What is it really?"
"What?" The foreigner barely remembered to ask in English, let alone the proper accent, but his 'friends' were deep in their cups by this point and could care less what he really sounded like.
Luna politely repeated her question, "What's your real name? They practically went wild when you mentioned that other one."
Now feeling as though he'd lost an important part of the conversation he asked, "Who did?"
"The Roehagikvots," she answered. "They're all over you so you must be hiding something big. They love to bask in that air of mystery it gives people."
Toichi stopped another blink before it could begin; he wasn't going to give in that easily.
He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "You're right, it's actually Nancent Belfry, but that would ruin me rep with the men so keep it down." Again he watched her eyes shrink to an almost normal size and her eyebrows come together a little in the front before she shook her head.
"No, I don't believe that is it either. But if you don't want to tell me, that's alright." She kicked her feet to swivel herself back towards her untouched drink and took a sip before turning towards the door. Not finding what she was looking for, she almost brought her eyes back to his before becoming distracted by whatever she had been staring at before. "If you wanted to keep it a secret though, you should stop thinking that it's a secret."
Checking himself once more for these supposedly rampant creatures, he hid a frown before looking back up.
"What do ya mean?" If there was something he could do to stop sending signals that he was lying, for she was obviously reading some tick in his body language as well as being slightly insane, he'd give it a try. It seemed like she was trying to be helpful anyway. She took another glance at the door before she sat her drink down.
"Stop thinking it's a secret, silly. The more of a secret it is, the more you try to hide it and the bigger the mystery gets. Thinking that it's the most natural thing in the world will keep them away," she explained. "The eyebrow thing is no secret, so they went away for a little, but then you itched your mask and they came back."
Toichi was lucky he wasn't drinking anything. How had she seen the mask? Stopping his thoughts before they could get out of control, he thought about it logically. The girl was obviously good at reading people, so it was a given that she would catch the small details, like the fact that his mask was slightly frayed at the bottom under the beard. She might be a few cards short of a full deck, but her advice could make sense if one decoded it correctly.
"So I should just accept the mask as me and forget the rest and it'll be fine?" The question was out before he could think twice about it and it took supreme force of will to stop the seventeen year old boy from slapping himself in the face for his mistake.
Luna just smiled as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be masquerading as another person, looked directly at him and nodded.
"See, now they're all gone! Well, all but that one that keeps tearing at your mask, but it should go away soon enough." Looking at the door once more, she took out a few silvery coins and set them down next to her glass. "It was nice meeting you, Not-Ned. Have a nice evening."
Never taking his eyes off of her, he watched her meet a young man with dark, messy hair and glasses at the entrance, greeting and giving him a hug before they both left. After spending a few minutes staring after them, he shook his head and turned back to the bar, intending to continue his charade only to see his 'pal' on the other stool looking at him strangely. Afraid the jig was up but unwilling to cede defeat, he asked defensively in his welsh accent, "What?"
"Your name's Nancent, too?"