I dedicate this fic to my friend Sku. I know the story is kind of silly but I hope it makes you smile. :)
The Magician's hat
"Koushiro-kun, I came the fastest I could! What's the emergency?" Sora asked, knocking on his door. Koushiro had sent her a message earlier pleading for her to come to his apartment, alone, and help him with a problem. The girl was very concerned. What kind of problem could Koushiro possibly be in?
Sora could not have prepared herself for what she would see when Koushiro opened the door.
"A top hat?" She asked, confused, staring at the top hat the younger boy was wearing.
Extremely embarrassed, Koushiro could not bear to look at her. He kept his eyes on Sora's feet and murmured:
"I can't take it off. Please, help me."
"This is your emergency?!" Sora was baffled.
"I know it's silly! I know! I'm sorry!" Koushiro hurried to apologize. "I tried everything to take the hat off but nothing worked! You're the only person I can count-!"
"Why?" Sora asked. "Is it because of my recent interest in clothing?"
"It's because if I had asked anyone else, the person would've made fun of me." Koushiro replied, scratching his face.
"Really?" Sora muffled a chuckle. "Okay, let me have a look at it."
A couple of minutes later, she was in his kitchen. Sora had made Koushiro sit on a chair and tried to pull the hat from his head with her full force. But it was all for nothing.
"Where did this hat come from anyway? Why did you put it on?"
"When I was a little kid, a Magician lady gave it to me. I found it in my wardrobe today and tried it on… then it got stuck."
"I think I'm going to have to cut the hat." Sora murmured, putting her right hand under her chin.
"NO!" Koushiro shouted, grabbing the hat in a protective way. "This hat is important to me, Sora-san! The Magician lady told me to search for the magic in the world the same day she gave it to me!"
"Wow!" Sora was surprised that there was such a sweet story behind that hat. "Okay, then. We need someone stronger to pull the hat off, in this case."
"No, Sora-san, don't call anyone else here, please!" Koushiro pleaded.
"Don't worry, Koushiro-kun. I know someone who would never make fun of you!" Sora said.
Half an hour later, Ishida Yamato was in the apartment. He studied the situation and came up with an important question to determine the best course of action:
"Was there a bunny in the hat before Koushiro put it on?"
"Sora-san, you said he wouldn't make fun of me!" Koushiro felt betrayed.
"I didn't think he would!" She had a defensive tone. "Yamato-kun, how could you?"
"I'm not joking!" Yamato got slightly offended. "I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to endanger an innocent living being!"
Sora blushed. Yamato-kun has such a gentle soul! How could I doubt the purity of his heart?
"There isn't any bunny in the hat." Koushiro murmured, still suspecting that Yamato was in fact making fun of him.
"Great!" Yamato said, searching for something in the kitchen's drawers. "Okay, this is going to solve the problem!" He complemented, pulling a sharp knife from the drawer.
Sora felt as if someone had slapped her in the face. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The girl positioned herself between Koushiro and Yamato, waving her arms to protect the younger boy.
"Sora, it's to cut the hat! I'm not going to harm him!" Yamato hurried to explain, nervously.
"You can't cut the hat, Yamato-kun!" Sora forbade the blonde.
"Why not?" Yamato was confused.
"It's important to me!" Koushiro said, still sitting on the same chair, behind Sora.
"Koushiro-kun received the hat from a Magician lady who taught him to look for the magic in the world!" Sora explained. "The hat is a representation of the innocence of his childhood and his transition to become a scientific inclined person! If you cut the hat, it would be like cutting his very soul! Do you want to destroy his hopes and dreams, Yamato-kun?!"
Startled, Yamato put the knife on the nearby counter.
"I'm sorry, Koushiro! I had no idea I was about to destroy your hopes and dreams!" He apologized so seriously that Koushiro did not dare to think it was a joke.
"Yamato-kun, I knew I could count on the purity of your heart!" The girl beamed largely, which made Yamato's face turn completely red.
"Please, don't… forget about me…" Koushiro murmured, feeling like he was intruding an intimate moment of other people despite being in his own apartment.
"Ah, right!" Yamato remembered why he had gone to that place. "Hear this plan: Sora will hold Koushiro by the shoulders while I pull the hat in the other direction."
"That's brilliant, Yamato-kun!" Sora complimented him.
"Ah!" The blonde blushed furiously. "It's nothing! Really… I'm just trying to help."
How long until one of them confesses to the other and puts an end to this awkward ambiguous flirtation? Koushiro wondered.
The plan was put in practice. Sora held Koushiro with all her might and Yamato pulled the hat in the opposite direction. The blonde managed to remove it and fell backwards on the floor.
"Yamato-kun, are you okay?" Sora asked, approaching the boy. Yamato sat up, still with the top hat's edges in his hands. He looked at its insides and gasped.
"What is it?" Koushiro asked, approaching him as well. The older boy showed the others the interior of the hat.
"Is that… a glue tube stuck in it?" Sora learned at that moment the meaning of second-hand embarrassment.
"Oi, Koushiro." Yamato put his whole energy in remaining calm. "What kind of human being leaves a glue tube in a hat that represents the innocence of his childhood and his transition to become a scientific inclined person? Don't you have any respect for your own hopes and dreams?"
"It's possible that the glue tube fell in it by accident and I didn't realize it." Koushiro theorized, scratching his flustered face.
"It's possible? That's exactly what happened!" Yamato stated.
"Yamato-san, we must not jump to conclusions!" Koushiro spoke as if he was contemplating the hidden meanings of life. "How the glue tube materialized in the hat might be an eternal mystery."
"Yamato-kun just gave the solution for the mystery." Sora remarked.
"Magic is present in each one of us and surrounds us all. You just need to pay attention to see it." Koushiro added, trying to sound philosophical.
"All this mess happened because you weren't paying attention to what was inside the hat before putting it on!" Yamato affirmed.
"Let him be, Yamato-kun." Sora sighed. "Koushiro-kun is suffering with the situation more than any of us."
"Alright." Yamato gave in.
Koushiro thanked them for the help and, as a sign of his gratitude, promised to show them a card trick he had learned. Before that, however, they had to find a solution for a new problem: Yamato's fingers had been glued to the top hat's edges.