The apartment, it’s in bad shape. The first thought popping into her head as she was lead inside by Ryuu. Clutter, chipping brick wall, thinning paint chips from the ceiling and floorboards creaked like a sailing ship from the 16th century.

“You live like this?” Surely, it would be bad for your health. The mess needs more then blessing, it needs a miracle. The second room is no better, it’s decorated with musical symbols on the wall and a cascade of sheet music, seeming to be written by himself. The one thing she couldn’t help but smile at was the tiny cactus fitted in the offside table of the room, next to it the piano he mentioned.

Turning his body down to the chair in front, he flaunts his sleeves down placing his fingers on the keys. “So, maybe I should show you a little how this works first.” He presses the keys, a fine melody playing. He had played for years, ever since he was four years old. His parents always urged him to practice, day after day, off or on days, any day rain, sleet, or meteors falling to Earth, he was expected always. Nonetheless, it wasn’t enough to make him famous or even a drop in the bucket of notability. To Aika though, it sounded beautiful.

“Wow, you play really good.” She sets her wand down, after a few days she repaired it more of less with some duct tape, a dash of powdered magic she had in her pocket. It may not work perfectly, but it’s the best she can do in the current situation. She sits on the ground, not having a clear place to sit with piles of clothes invading every surface.

“Thank you, I’ve played for years, never been good enough to get noticed though. There’s always been better musicians then me. It’s not my only instrument either.” He points to the corner, violin, saxophone, drums, mic and even a DJ set, all complied into a clumped section of the room.

“You aren’t the most organized person, I’ll say that much. You know that’s bad? A good organized place is a wonderful place. It also keeps your mind organized.” If Albatross heard her say that, he would chew into her hypocrisy.

“I tend to be busy, making music and working 10-hours at my fast food job to make it buy. I don’t have a roommate, or girlfriend to help me, and any semblance of that is far flung.”

“And you wonder why Mr. Bootylooker?”

“You know that old trope is going to get old on you really fast?”

“What trope?” she smirks knowing exactly what he means. Stirring the pot was her specialty.

“You get all your knowledge from TV and books I’m assuming? Guessing you watch anime too, and you’re doing the old pervert trope thing.”

“Now you admit to being an anime delinquent?” she teases. She had never done this in real life, or at least to another person. Sure, Albatross was a companion she had all these years, but he always had a way of shutting down her shenanigans, this boy plays into them.

“I’m not! I just watch it sometimes, after a long day at work. Does that make me a bad guy?” he taps a key, over, and over.

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“Mmm, let me think about that caterpillar. Yes, absolutely, without a divines judgement swayed.” She answers.

“You’re going to be difficult to deal with. You’re free to stay though, it’s a two bedroom apartment, another bed in that room over there. Figure you’d still be tired after the hospital, they tend to let people go early there. Not the best place to go but the one I could afford.”

“Huh? You mean regular people pay to get healed?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s a whole thing called the health care system. The one we went to was a lot cheaper, especially for someone not into the, well, system. You don’t technically exist.”

“Hey don’t be giving me a crisis now, that’s stupid. Humans paying to heal other humans? Can’t you all just do it out of the kindness of your hearts as witches do?”

“Does kindness pay the bills?” he says getting up. “Now, disregarding the crummy nature of, well, human nature, would you like to try it out?”

A smile rides along her lips, she knew she wouldn’t be good at this, but the concept was exciting her. She was never one to be embarrassed at embarrassing herself, taking the bench she rings out her sleeves and lays her slender fingers on the keys. It reminds her of her days where she would learn skills, over only focusing on magic. Sure that can be classified a skill in itself, but it was the only one she honed evident by the way her first key played sound like a shriveling shrewd.

“Wow, heh, what can I say about that? It’s, a start.” He figures.

“Oh yeah? Well I’d play better if I had focused on it besides magic, bet I can conjured better then you.”

“Considering I can’t do that to begin with, yeah.”

“H-hush up.” She felt dumb thinking that more over. Magic and regular skills were two separate concepts entirely. One had to be gift from birth, no exceptions, the other you could be born talentless and become good, she figures that’s what happened to Ryuu. Hearing he never had any success with getting through other people seemed foreign to her. Everything she did in the forest mattered, to the deer, squirrels, and plants— every spell, trim of the hedges, or logging of logs, even the mundane things like cook food that attracted flies. Imagining it again made her hate it.

Flicking her want up, she taps the top of the piano. A small sparkle escapes it.

“I never thought a witch’s want would sparkle like a Disney movie.’ Ryuu states leaning against the brick wall.

“What the heck is a Disney? Some type of ditzy flower?”

“Are you seriously telling me you watch TV all the time and don’t know what that is?”

“Nope.” She taps her wand again, releasing more magic. A flashing of blue, purple, and a hint of yellow rain on it. She knew it displaying colors like this was off. Her magic tended to hold only one color when the spell was correct. “Yeah, don’t think you’re going to be getting, Daystay magic, my wand needs recalibrating, but eh, let’s try this puppy out.”

Hitting one key, it sounded different, not bad or good, it sounded like a western rag style saloon.

“Oh, boy that sounds ridiculous.” Her fingers ride along, each guided by magic to play the correct notes.

“I mean sure, I never been one for this kind of music Tex, but still that’s a high skill piece, that’s seriously impressive!” Alight eyes, he contemplates how this is possible. It took him a good six years to be able to play that fluent, here she was doing it in less then a minute aided by her magic. It beckoned the question, how far can she take this?

“Yeah, yeah, I’m not going to get into some sort of revolver fight like Client Eastwood to this sort of drab.”

“How do you know Client Eastwood but not Walt Disney?” He questions shaking his head.

“Walk your ditzy flower out of here, Client Eastwood is cool, really cool!” she solidifies by whistling the theme in perfect sync.

“Wow, you can whistle that really well. Did you do magic on your blowing skills too?”

She paused playing staring at him in disgust. “Pervert.”

“I-“ he realized his words. “We’re going to need to work on our communication.”

“You don’t say you filthy mongrel.”

She was going to be a handful. She herself reviles in that, with a smile.