[open]

[suddenlybees]

Who: Kano & OTA
What: magic practice, pettiness, finals
Where: Lumière, greenhouse, library
When: mid-month, before finals
Warnings: self-harm for prompt i., none expected for the rest
Notes: details of Kano's new Fey Contract can be found on his app

i. Lumière dormitory rooftop
[ Fey magic is a really... terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. But Kano is determined to make it work, this new Contract that he'd forged a couple of days ago, but it's just so different from his usual illusion magic that he'd worked ten whole years to get to the point where he is now, illusions seamless and effortless compared to him staring at his arm right now wondering what he's doing wrong?

Because his arm is bleeding, a bloody knife on his lap while he pokes at the wound with his other hand and it just comes back bloody, him wincing because it hurts and why isn't the magic working? There's nothing intuitive about this at all, and he has no idea how he's supposed to make it work, with the magic supposed to be healing and dulling pain but it's just doing the opposite for him, the pain making it hard to keep a smile on his face, and making him feel like crying a little.

With a sigh, he waves hand over the bleeding cut instead of touching it, and it disappears— simply masked underneath an illusion, but it's still there while he tries to figure out how to do this, preferably before he bleeds out.

It won't come to it, though. He has three years worth of band-aids stocked up, and he knew they would be useful someday. ]

ii. campus, on the way to the greenhouse or inside
[ But you know what always makes up for terrible days? Even more terrible ideas to get your mind off previous ones. This one isn't that bad, though, because it's something that'll have positive long-term consequences. Probably.

Anyways, it's Kano with long sleeves and pants and winter gloves and the hood of his jacket pulled over his head and eyes and also a bandanna over the rest of his face so he can have as little skin showing as possible. It isn't all because of botched healing practice, though, it's because he's lugging around a three gallon plastic jug in his arms— you know, one of those large plastic containers twice the size of your head that you can buy cheese balls in, but instead of cheese balls, it's bees.

It's a jar full of bees.

He had to ship them to a PO in town and then lug them all the way back to campus; this insect purchasing restriction is really an awful pain. ]

iii. library
[ But also, anyways, it's almost finals and while Kano did surprisingly okay on his midterms, he's got to do slightly more okay on his finals too, because exam scored are literally all that's carrying his grades without the homework to pad it.

So the library it is... Books, his arch nemesis... Him, sitting at one of the open study areas with a stack of brand new text books in front of him that barely look touched, a mug of something on the table that's a dark dark red to the point that it's almost black and also has four tea bags sitting inside it that's steeped so long the tea is no longer steaming, and also hands clamped over his ears like he's trying to block out ambient noise, or massage away a headache, or give himself a headache so he can go hang out in the infirmary for the next two weeks and not do finals.

Why does Daybreak have to be a school??? Schools suck. ]

Comments

[deuteranope]

You know what? Why the fuck not. I don't have anything better to fucking do than babysit a fucking bucket of bees.

[Or talk to it, while he waits alone in his room. After he gets up and makes sure the door is locked again, as always, he returns to the jar to watch the bees, listen to the bees...be gently lulled by the bees. He's still annoyed, but it's hard to stay as agitated as he was, after letting his brain simmer down to that buggy hum.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Good. He would trust nobody else to babysit his bees and not toss them out the window. He's also sure that Maverick wouldn't hold him to his word about being "right" back for the bees, so... four hours later... the sound of a jiggling doorknob.

Not the sound of a doorknob having its screws removed, but the sound of somebody going ??? why is this door locked when I just stepped out for barely a moment? ]

[deuteranope]

[Four hours later, the organic white noise and boredom has put Maverick to sleep, but the sound of someone trying to get in, even naturally and gently, makes him sit up, awake again. And then it's a whole nother moment of panic as he has to catch the bees his movement has jostled into rolling off the bed.]

No, shit! Okay...

[Safe... Back to the desk they go, and Maverick moves over to the door, cracking it open after unlocking it to see if it's Kano like he expects before opening it the rest of the way.]

Jesus. What fucking time is it?

[suddenlybees]

[ Oh, wonderful, the door opens and Kano sticks his foot out through the crack before Maverick can slam the door in his face, something he's prepared for because what comes out of his mouth is ]

It's peanut butter jelly time!!

[ ......PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCE. Kano's currently batting zero for five and he's dying that nobody knows these memes. ]

[deuteranope]

[.....................

sluggishly tries to close door on his foot]

With a baseball bat... [Is he getting his?]

[suddenlybees]

[ ...He sticks both feet inside, jamming the door with his entire body. ]

Mmhmm, that's right, with a baseball bat.

[ He has no idea what that means— he knows the meme but not the full lyrics, why does Mav know the full lyrics? ]

[deuteranope]

[Because his mom was closer to the meme's hayday and they both hate themselves.

Anyway, it doesn't take him long to give up and plop back onto the bed so he has a nice comfy perch to glare from.]

Seriously, dumbass, I can't believe you took that long. What the hell were you doing?

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano happily enters the room, closing the door behind him but without locking it, and goes to sit on top of Maverick's desk so he can stare at his jar of bees like he means to count that they're all still there. ]

Hm? Oh, you know... getting stuff ready, taking breaks, this and that~ Was it really that long? Were you lonely without me?

[deuteranope]

[...It's almost tempting to reach out and pinch Kano hard to make sure he's just as injured as he was hours ago and not a bruise more.]

More like fucking bored. I fucking fell asleep, you dicked around so long.

[suddenlybees]

[ No!! He'd dicked around for four hours so Maverick can forget everything he'd learned about Kano and his illusions and the stupid inconvenient way to shut it off. ]

Weren't you studying before, though? If you fell asleep, it's not 'cause you had nothing else to do, right?

[ Don't blame this one on him. ]

[deuteranope]

[Speaking of which -- ]

You fucking still have my notes, asshole.

[suddenlybees]

[ ...Haha. He scoots a little away from the bed. ]

Well, yeah, I haven't gotten to copy them yet. Let me hang onto them for another day~

[deuteranope]

[Kano...!]

Then I can't fucking study, can I? [So he slept.] You got twenty-four hours, got it? Now what're the bees doing?

[suddenlybees]

Oh! I'm actually getting twenty four hours??

[ Excuse him while he scoots even further away on the desk, so he can sit sideways on it with his feet up on the surface, Maverick's notebook out and also his own little pocket notebook. He is going to copy these notes here and now, apparently. ]

As for the bees... They look pretty happy here, huh? But it'll be almost dinnertime, so I'll take 'em with me before I go. Do you think your roommate would miss his ants?

[deuteranope]

Pretty sure your grades depend on these fucking notes, at this point... Might as well.

[He's got his one friend, he's gonna do what he can to keep him around, dangit. Even if that one friend is keeping a jar of bees on his desk and could, at any moment, release them because fuck friendship.

Maverick scoffs.]

Uh, yeah. He's a real loser, so he would.

[suddenlybees]

[ Jars of bees are really handy to have around, it's like holding everybody at gunpoint except he can sit and take notes while he does so. ]

Hm... Wouldn't want to make him cry, so I guess I'll have to collect my own from outside instead... Hey, do you want to help me copy these notes? It'll be faster if you helped too?

[deuteranope]

It'll be faster if you take a picture, but studies show you remember the information better if you write it out yourself. You're on your own.

[suddenlybees]

[ He heaves a sigh and stares at the ceiling for a moment, before pulling his phone out of his pocket. ]

I have precious memory space I can't be using up on this stuff, Mav...

[ Goodbye most recent picture of him and Nana, he's got to make room for physics or whatever mundane subject he's copying down rn. ]

[deuteranope]

[wow so much for that relationship ever being a possibility...]

Then write it, dumbass. And use your Pepita-sitting money to get a newer phone.

[suddenlybees]

[ She has the picture on her phone so it's not like it's gone forever, gosh ]

No way, I've got plans for that money! With all the blood, sweat, and tears it took to make that money, I'm going to put it towards something more important!

[deuteranope]

I'm fucking there, I know it isn't a "blood, sweat, and tears" job.

[REMEMBER, THEY WERE BOTH HIRED...]

A cell phone is a much more obtainable goal than a fucking motorbike. It sets you back less, comparatively.

[suddenlybees]

[ And Kano was definitely almost-tears and cold sweat and the only reason there want blood was because he was so careful to not get mauled by the little beast. ]

Oh! Didn't you hear? The goal of the motorbike has been reached~

[deuteranope]

...Huh?

[WHAT

WHEN

WHY

HOW]

Tell me you didn't fucking rob a bank.

[suddenlybees]

I didn't fucking rob a bank.

[ is that convincing at all though ]

[deuteranope]

[........................he holds out his pinkie.]