A Little Ordinary Magic (Ryo/Maru, Subaru/Yasu, 2/2)

[http://users.livejournal.com/digitalized_/]

A Little Ordinary Magic
Kanjani8; light Ryo/Maru with a side of Subaru/Yasu.

PART ONE >>

--- Ryo wakes up back home. He feels disoriented and his stomach is somewhat upset, but for the most part he thinks he's still in one piece. "Hot cocoa?" Hina asks, handing out a mug. Ryo wonders when it would register in his roommate's mind that he doesn't like anything sweet. But his stomach threatens to lurch, and maybe warm liquid could keep it down. He also thinks he should demand answers -- they've tugged him around for way too long already. What the hell just happened? "Maru will explain everything," Hina says. "Before that, meet Ohkura." "Who?" Ryo follows the direction of Hina's finger, and sees a tall man with a timid smile. Ryo recognizes the man as the one he saw lying on the ground after the dragon disappears -- and it doesn't exactly take much thought to link everything together, but it still doesn't explain why this guy's standing in front of him. "Hello," Ohkura says in a weak voice, wavering like he's unused to speaking. "You're the dragon?" Ryo asks straightly. Instead of Ohkura, Yasu answers. "Yes. We needed someone to break the spell, and only a witch could." In a change of tone, Yasu chirps, "And wow, that was quite a burst of magic!" "But-" Ryo starts uncertainly. Powerful magic can turn human into other animals, but he's never heard of people being transformed into magical creatures. Yet it could just be that Ryo doesn't know enough about magic. After all, most people would turn their enemies into disgraceful beasts such as toads. Who would turn their enemy into such grand creatures such as dragons? "He's a dragon-human hybrid," Yoko says, emerging from his room. "Maru, you explain. Yasu, secure Ohkura. Hina, let's check the lawn. Where's Subaru?" "Here," a voice pops out, Subaru solidifying into the room after. "Good, come with us," Yoko says, and everyone starts moving in a flurry. Yasu leads Ohkura towards Hina's room, arguably the most secure room in the neighborhood. Ryo catches sight of Maru moving towards him, and he heaves a deep sigh and walks towards the couch. Might as well make himself comfortable if he's going to ask what exactly has Yoko so riled up. Yoko also said dragon-human hybrid. Ryo's positive he didn't mishear that, but how does a dragon and human, well, mate? Ryo cringes just thinking about it. In fact, he's not thinking about it. Very purposely not thinking about it. Not thinking about humans possibly fitting together with dragons and oh god, gross, still not thinking it. "You know about the great dragons, right?" Maru begins. "The ones that moved to the other side of the world to get away from humans. Aside from talking, they can do magic as well. His mother's one of them, but...long story short, she chose to become a human. Stuck in human shape, she married his father without thinking much of it. Only, Ohkura should be more human than dragon, but he's as much dragon as human and he can shift freely between his two forms. It didn't matter at first, because Ohkura grew up with humans, and he likes being human. But, once, he accidentally shifted into dragon shape in excitement and nearly hurt someone. Eventually it got to Nature that there's an abomination of nature's balance in existence, and Nature kidnapped him to his realm." "But he wasn't meant to stay in one form. Your way of treating things as they are broke the spell in place." Maru looks sincerely into Ryo's eyes and says, "Thank you." "I didn't even know what was going on," Ryo points out. There isn't a blush on his face when he says, "But before that, excuse me if I misunderstood -- are we going against the force of Nature?" Maru nods. Before Ryo can begin to fear for his life (again), Maru places a hand on Ryo's shoulders. "It's not as bad as you think," Maru says. "Nature's powerful, but she isn't very smart, and her reaction time's slow. We can take advantage of that." "So what are you guys planning to do?" "We predict a hurricane coming our way. I've set up necessary spells so that the entire neighborhood is safe, and we don't think Nature would upset her own balance by expending its range. Yoko's going to attack her head on to lessen her force, and Hina will try to convince her that Ohkura's harmless." Ryo looks thoughtfully at the closed door to Hina's room. "You're doing awfully a lot for this Ohkura guy," he says. "He's our friend," Maru says. Hearing that, Ryo's immensely glad that he's part of this. They were the ones that roped him into this, and Ryo has been confused for the most part. But if there's one concept Ryo wholeheartedly believes, it's friendship. Ryo believes in standing beside his friends regardless of the circumstances, and what they're doing for Ohkura genuinely touches him. It's almost irritating. "What can I do?" Ryo asks, shifting a little towards Maru. Just because his side of the couch is getting uncomfortable, and he feels the need to move. "I don't know really know," Maru confesses. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now, either. We're just waiting, I supposed. Maybe we should see what the others are doing on the lawn?" Annoyed that there's no immediate action he can take, Ryo feels himself twitching. "I suppose, if there's nothing else. What about Yasu?" Maru withdraws his hand and frowns at Ryo. "You know," Maru says, his voice tight, "Subaru views you as more of a threat than Ohkura and me put together. He says it's because your souls are alike." Threat? Ryo blinks. He's not interested in threatening Subaru. He's more or less already gotten used to the idea that he and Subaru just don't mix. They're not enemies, but they're not friends either, and Ryo's perfectly fine with that. He has no intention to upset this balance. Honestly, Maru's the one being oversensitive. Most of the time, Ryo isn't even thinking when he mentions Yasu. Ryo finds Yasu simple and easy to get along with -- that doesn't mean anything. Ryo's just about had it with this nonsense. If Maru's going to pine, it's fine by him, but Maru should at least own up to it. "You were interested in Yasu?" Ryo asks deliberately. "No!" Maru yelps. His expression says otherwise, "But we were partners, long before Yasu and Subaru even met. And with Ohkura, Yasu's the first one to reach out for him in dragon shape. I guess Subaru thinks you're more." Ryo struggles to keep calm. It's not easy when he has to suffer through this stupidity. Are they talking about keeping a pet here? Even if Yasu is a witch's cat, Ryo thought that was in name only. "Maybe Yasu's not the one I'm thinking about right now," Ryo snaps. Before Maru has a chance to reply, Ryo gets up and walks away. Aware that he's nearly running, he strides out the door. Might as well see what the others are doing. Considering how they're just bunch of idiots, probably nothing constructive. --- There's a tank on the lawn. It's very hard to ignore the fact that there's an armoured fighting vehicle on the lawn. Spotting Hina, Ryo trots over. "Are you selling that?" "Nah, not mine," Hina says. "Just thought I should be prepared, you know? Borrowed this one from Nino. Beautiful, isn't it? Nino says hi and warns you that he's visiting sometimes soon. So, Maru told you everything?" In contrary to beauty, Ryo thinks clunky is perhaps the better word. He knows better than to say that out loud, though. Arguing with Hina never ends up well, unless you're looking to get chewed up and thrown over several times before you quit. "Enough to understand the situation," Ryo answers to Hina's question. "You can run if you want," Hina says with a grin. Now the guy's just baiting Ryo. "When have you ever seen me run away?" he scoffs. "And running away from your cooking doesn't count." "Knew you would say that." They stand in comfortable silence for a while, Hina watching the sky for moment and Ryo just staring at the ludicrousness of a tank on the lawn. After a while, Ryo decides to ask, "Say, can I get in that thing?" "If Yoko and Subaru ever get out," Hina replies, laughing. "Yoko's treating it like a huge toy and refuses to leave. His excuse is he's planning his attack from there but, you know him. He's just having fun. Subaru's in there as well, so it's a tight squeeze already." Ryo can imagine Yoko going over the gadgets inside the tank, his fingers twitching as he grazes over the buttons. It's amusing and very much Yoko and actually kind of endearing. It's the impending doom in their future, Ryo thinks -- it's making him strangely wistful. Maybe he should call his parents and tell them he loves them or something, but Hina would probably laugh at him, and Ryo prefers thinking they'll be fine. He hears a distant rumble. The sound of a storm's on its way here, Ryo thinks. The top of the tank opens and Yoko's head pops out. "Did you hear that?" Yoko asks, crawling out of the tank. Noticing Ryo, he adds, "Oh hey, Ryo." "The clouds are gathering," Hina says, pointing upward in the general direction of where Ryo went this morning. Ryo looks towards the sky and sees the clouds moving in rapid motion, getting darker every second. However, Ryo also find the sight of Yoko quite odd. He tries to decide what's making him think so, until he realizes the distinct lack of Yoko's scythe. Remembering Yoko's explanation on how the scythe's keeping him alive (sort of), Ryo finds himself uncomfortably nervous. "Where's your scythe?" he asks, though he knows Yoko wouldn't needlessly kill himself. Probably. "In my pocket," Yoko replies. He reaches into his pocket and between his fingers, Ryo sees a tiny version of the scythe Yoko normally carries. "I can't take the whole thing into the tank, you know how little space there is in there?" "Wait a minute, you can shrink that thing?" Ryo says accusingly. "You haven't noticed?" Yoko says with a giggle. Yoko's giggling really is quite distracting, and Ryo's understandably alerted when the scythe suddenly grows in Yoko's fingers till he's grasping the handle like he normally does. "How do you think I go shopping?" "Then why do you carry it like that-" Ryo gestures at the full-sized scythe, "-most of the time?" "It's fun. Wanna try? The look on some people's faces...priceless." It's also just like Yoko to give the scythe a practiced twirl, letting the blade whirl around him expertly. Why Yoko never did it before Ryo doesn't know, but considering how long Yoko's been carrying the scythe, of course he's practiced wielding it (if just for fun). Must be because of Yoko's horrible balance and body coordination, and it's twice as frightening to see the action when you take that into account. "So, um," Ryo begins, but he doesn't get the chance to finish because the sky turns dark in a blink. Maru dashes out the door. "She's coming!" Lightning cracks above them. "Yeah, no shit," Ryo mutters. Above them, Ryo hears the wind catching up. There's pouring amounts of rain, but the raindrops slide aside silently. Nothing touches the ground, the spell protecting the area, and it feels like they're in a dome watching a storm above them. Despite knowing the danger, it's a sight to behold, and Ryo thinks he could watch this all day. "Maru, get inside and make sure your spell stands. It's the only thing protecting us at the moment," Hina commands. "Whole neighborhood's depending on you. Ryo...see if you can help him." "But-" Ryo begins, then stops. There's nothing he can do out here, and maybe he could figure out a way to help inside. It still feels like hiding, though if the storm really were to hit, hiding inside their wooden house wouldn't be exactly safe. Probably should have dug out a basement if he knew this was going to happen. Without saying a word, Yoko runs out, heading towards the direction the storm's coming from. Ryo thinks of following, but whatever Yoko's going to do, Ryo thinks he's probably be a hindrance. He says nothing when Maru drags him back inside the house. It's infinitely awkward when they sit on the floor, looking at each other wordlessly. Maru looks miserable, crouching down so much that he barely looks his height. "At least you're useful," Ryo says, not sure if he's trying to help or just to lessen his own awkwardness. "I don't even know how magic works, unless lighting a fire counts. Not very helpful here." "More helpful than you think," Maru says, "My magic's only useful for situations like this. It's useless most of the time." Ryo snorts. It's really kind of unattractive, but he's beginning not to care. "I hated magic," he says, catching Maru's attention. "Well, not hate, I just didn't care for it because it had nothing to do with me. I also thought magic's a shortcut for people to be lazy, but that's not true. You're helping people, and...you're dedicated to your magic." Maru's eyes widen as he looks around them. Ryo follows his line of vision worryingly, wondering if the ceiling's going to fall, when Maru's eyes land back on him. "You're supporting the spell," Maru says in wonder. "I suppose you don't know you're doing that?" Ryo frowns. "No," he admits. Maru smiles, warm and slow, "Does this mean you trust me? My spell, anyway?" "God, you're sappy," Ryo says, shaking his head. Only Maru would think that immediately. Not that he has any other explanation to how his magic's working (he still never feels a thing, is that normal?). "About earlier..." Maru says, but he doesn't continue. Ryo's not sure he wants Maru to. Luckily for Ryo, Subaru rushes in. Ryo's beginning to see a convenient pattern here. Subaru's hair hangs loose around him, giving him a wild look. Added with his frantic expression, and Subaru looks positively feral. "Where's Yasu?" Subaru grits out. "Isn't he in there?" Ryo points to Hina's room, trying not to show how nervous Subaru's making him. "Ohkura's in there. He's safely tucked between the second and third dimension just like we planned, but Yasu's not! I searched in fourth too and he's not there. Damn reptile, if anything happens-" "Calm down," Hina says from behind Subaru. "He's Yasu, he'll be fine. I'm more worried about Yoko, we haven't heard from him for a while." Subaru looks about to bite. Ryo involuntarily shudders a little. Ryo thinks of offering to search for Yasu, but he'll probably be turned down. They never take his ideas into consideration. "I'm going to have a little chat with Nature," Subaru says before stalking out once more. The door slams shut, and Ryo stares at the piece of wood. Much to his surprise, Hina starts laughing out loud. "Well, at least he finds that motivating. Yasu disappearing might actually be of help to us," Hina says. "But what if something really happened?" Ryo points out. "He's Yasu," Maru says, which seems like his standard explanation for everything involving Yasu. Maybe to Maru, it is. "He's a cat, remember? They're good at survival, and they have nine lives." "I thought that wasn't literal," Ryo says. Maru shrugs. Hina crashes onto the couch, and Ryo thinks about the state of Hina's room. Would being in two dimension mean being, well, flat? Ryo wonders what that would feel like, and if it's possible for him to try it. Not that he wants to. Being stuck between dimensions doesn't sound fun, and what if being in two dimensions meant being immovable? Ryo's not looking forward to needing rescuing. --- Ryo's not sure how much time has passed when the door opens, revealing both Subaru and Yoko drenched in water. Maru rushes over, then runs off in a hurry before deciding to run towards Subaru. "Are you two alright? Uh, Hina? Any towels?" "I'll go get it," Hina replies, taking a brief look at the window. "Storm's over," Subaru grunts. Ryo looks outside and sure enough, the sky's slowly turning bright. From the sound of it, the wind's dying down as well. Yasu's still nowhere to seen though, but Subaru doesn't look too worried about it even though it's the reason why he rushed out in the first place. Of course, right after Ryo thinks that, Yasu pops right into the middle of the room. "Uh, wow," Yasu says, looking bewildered. "What happened to the storm?" "Subaru happened," Yoko says. "Where were you, anyway? Subaru here went all crazy on us and you weren't even here to see it." "Sorry," Subaru murmurs. Yasu looks down, and Ryo sees the puddle on the floor as well. The floor boards are not going to be happy after they dry. "No, I'm sorry," Yasu says. "I just tripped and fell into the wrong space frame and it took a while to find the right one. So, Nature left? I thought we could treat her to tea!" Yasu tripped. Somehow, Ryo's not surprised, though it does discourage him from wanting to try crossing dimensions. "...Well, that's anti-climatic," Ryo comments. Yoko raises an eyebrow at him. "What did you expect?" This coming from the person playing around in a tank a while ago. Seriously, that never went into action. You would think that Hina borrowed the tank just to have it around as decoration, but...Okay, that's totally possible. "I want to go home and change," Subaru whines. With Yasu back around, he's turned back into a dependent child once more. A huge one for his age. "We should get Ohkura out first," Yasu says, and Subaru pouts. Yasu leads Ohkura out of Hina's room, and Ryo finally gets the chance to take a good look at the guy. He's sad to note that the guy's taller than him, but Ryo's got the better hair, and the guy probably eats like a dragon because he's got meat on his bones. "Hey," Ohkura says. Yasu stands aside, and Maru takes the chance to hug Ohkura. More like choking, actually, because Ohkura looks like he's not getting enough air. When Maru finally lets go, he has to grab Ohkura by the arms because Ohkura would have otherwise tumbled over. "I'm going to need a place to stay," Ohkura says, still sounding kind of weird. It'll be a while till he gets used to talking, Ryo supposes. They all look at one another for a while. Logically, seeing as this house has turned into some sort of base, Ohkura would be staying here, but there's no room unless Ohkura wants to stay in the living room and sleep on the couch. After more looks are exchanged, Subaru finally says, "He can stay with us." "Eh, Shibuyan?" Yasu exclaims. "Yasu here can take care of him," Subaru says, patting Yasu's shoulder and dripping water all over Yasu's back. "And Maru lives nearby. We have a guest room he can stay in." Subaru doesn't bother to mention that it was actually Yasu's room until they decided that there's really no point in having separate bedrooms and merged their belongings into Subaru's room. They chose Subaru's because the paintjob in Yasu's room scares Subaru, and Subaru's room is slightly larger by a few square centimeters. "I have a spare room, too," Maru says. "You won't for long," Yoko says with a smirk. Maru looks confused. Everyone beside Ryo snickers, and Ryo has a very ominous feeling about this. Especially when everyone turns around look at him, including a still confused Maru. "Well, what should we do now?" Hina says. "Beside making eyes at each other." "We have all that firepower," Yasu says, grinning wide. "Fireworks!" Yasu runs out the door, half his clothes already wet by then. Subaru follows, screaming random words that's not of any language Ryo knows of. "Come on, Ohkura," Hina says. "You'll want to see this. Let the two talk." "But..." Ohkura utters. Hina begins dragging Ohkura away. Ohkura looks at Ryo as he walks away, "Hi. We'll get to know each other later?" "Maybe," Ryo shrugs. Ohkura smiles in return, and Ryo realizes that he's being left alone with Maru. It's awkward enough to first time, but now it's more than obvious that the others are deliberately doing this. "About earlier," Maru begins once more. Ryo sighs. No way he's getting out of this one, is he? "What did you mean by that?" "Nothing," Ryo replies automatically. Maru stares at him. "Okay, something. But it's nothing!" And keeps staring. "...Except it's not? What do you want?" Maru looks like he's giving up, heaving a deep sigh. "I don't really think about Yasu much," he says. "But you should know that already. Unless you're missing all the looks I've been giving you, but Yoko says that's me being stupid because I'm being way too obvious, and even before you knew me you stared at me all the time, so maybe I thought-" "-Shut up," Ryo cuts in. He can feels his own face burning. "Alright, whatever. You sure about Yasu?" Maru looks unsure at first, and for a brief moment Ryo's beginning to feel the uncertainty creeping up on him, but then Maru shakes his head and he looks determined when he says, "It's a long time ago. I've had a lot of time to get over it, and he's with Subaru." "Relationships aren't eternal," Ryo says. Maru laughs. "One like theirs very well might be," he says. Ryo guesses Maru might be right. Not that it matter much. Really, Yasu's not all that special, and Ryo's much better than the guy. He's hotter, has more talent, plays the guitar (though he does learn way later than Yasu does too, better than him, but that's another story), and he can keep the water hot any hour of the day. All in all, he's the much better catch. Ryo hears -- then feels, because the house rocks along -- an explosion outside. Fireworks made out of gunpowder probably did that. "Explosions?" Maru asks, eyes gleaming. Right, Maru's specialty. Ryo nods, and sharing a smile, they both run outside, shouting gibberish with their arms raised. --- "I just heard there's an opening in the local street performer lineup," Yamapi says through the phone. Yamapi was Ryo's roommate back when he still lived near the city. They were good friends, almost best pals really, until Ryo had to move into the countryside to hide from some mobs that kept coming after him. (He might have accidentally punched one of them in a fit of anger but that was an accident.) He wanted to move back after the police finally interfered, but he needed a steady job to do that. That was a while ago, though. Being in Maru's house -- well, theirs, kind of, even though Maru's parents are the ones who bought the house -- Ryo really can't imagine leaving. "I won't be moving back anytime soon," he says. Much to Ryo's surprise, Yamapi laughs. "Finally, huh? We all knew you were going to stay after the first month, though I'm sure there are calluses in my ear just from hearing you complain." Ryo groans. It's just like Yamapi to guess what he's thinking, but Ryo's not admitting that so all he does say is, "Shut up." They chat about nothing for a while, until Ryo hears Uchi in the background. Remembering the book, Ryo realizes that he has a score to settle. "Hey, put Uchi on the line." There's a rustle, and the telltale sign of someone handing a phone to someone else. "Where the hell did you get that book?" Ryo demands. Uchi, much to Ryo's dismay, laughs loudly as well. Now look who's the one getting stabbed in the ears. "So it's true that you're a-" Uchi has to stifle his laughter before continuing, "-witch now?" Maru chooses that moment to walk out the bathroom. In a towel. "Whatever," Ryo grumbles. More burning laughter. "Aw, no witty comeback? You're mesmerized by something hot again, aren't you?" Uchi's annoying voice pipes. "Fuck you," Ryo says into the phone. He grins at Maru, who grins back looking confused. Normalcy achieved. They're possibly the most confused pair in the history of the universe, but Ryo just thinks it's funny the way they just bumble around. Highest entertainment, right there. "You wish," Uchi laughs, and Ryo decides to hang up. He has better things to attend to.

Comments

[ryotanfan29.livejournal.com]

I just love the way Ryo find out that he's a witch. It's great that Ryo doesn't have to pay the rent anymore. lol <3 Yoko could have change the size of his scythe the whole time! I love his reasoning on why he keeps it full-sized. It's amazing how they are going against Nature too. This fic was lovely to read. Thanks for sharing! ^-^

[http://users.livejournal.com/digitalized_/]

Pfffft, Ryo's more sad about the rent he paid before this. :p

Thanks for reading. <3

[aya-3003.livejournal.com]

I finally found time to read this FanFiction and I am glad about it.
At first I thought it will be gender switch, but I like it that you don't discriminate anybody. ^^

Mentioning Uchi is a big plus. ♥
I had to laugh, reading how precious every present from Uchi is for Ryo. ^^ Johnny as a janitor is priceless XD I always knew that JE is special~

Probably the thing I love the most in this FF is that Ryo has no idea what is happening at all. All those blank looks. ^^

[http://users.livejournal.com/digitalized_/]

Thanks for finding the time to read this!

I don't like separating wizards and witches by gender :D The Uchi appearance was a request by the recipient, so thanks her? xD Johnny-san is the landlord, not the janitor though.

Glad you enjoyed the constantly clueless Ryo. Thanks for the comment <3

[kiimiko.livejournal.com]

This is such a cute story, so fun and refreshing to read. Its feels like a cross between Howls Moving castle and The Good Omens. Ryo's grumpiness is adorable. I love that even though he doesnt know whats going on, hes just gets its and wholehearted wants to help when he finds out its for the sake of standing by friends. Love Eito friendship!

I came across your other fic "Days of cadet grey" and "Tints and shades" a while ago too. I think you're really talented at world building. Like Ryo, I'm boggled by the how bizarre somethings are, but its interesting and fun and it just works. All of these stories leave me hanging and craving to know more about your universe and the characters. These little hints between the lines.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful stories.

[http://users.livejournal.com/digitalized_/]

I've read both those books, and they're both my personal favorites so you're definitely on the right track thinking you see them in this fic :D

And oooh, glad you like my worlds. I really enjoy making them up :DD Thanks for reading <3

[yakiseop.livejournal.com]

This fic was absolutely adorable and ;_______; idk it restored my health man. I feel like I could run a marathon right now.

I loved the flow of the fic and the constant aura of absurdity. The comment above mine compared the fic to Howl's Moving Castle and, now that it's said, I actually see similarities between your style and Wynne-Jones'. Since she's my favorite writer of all times, please consider this a big compliment ;w;

Not to mention that I loved the pairing choice ;________; ♥♥♥ and the character construction, too. This fic is so beautiful ♥♥ thank you lots for sharing! ;w;/

btw Johnny's cameo in this fic was brilliant lmao

[http://users.livejournal.com/digitalized_/]

Oh wow, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this :D :D

I love her work as well, so it's wonderful just to hear this fic compared to hers, although she's definitely miles ahead xDD

And yay for rare-pairing love :D Thanks again for reading and commenting ♥♥