Bespelled

Yuu makes his way over to the cauldron and takes a deep breath, he can do this, he's been practicing. He'll show them that he has what it takes to be a great sorcerer. Yuu slowly and carefully mixes the ingredients with a concentration he's never shown before. He's almost completed the potion when he hears the classroom door creak open, Yuu glances up and freezes, his concentration breaking instantly.

Peering at him is a boy around his age with hair golden as the sun's rays and bright cerulean eyes filled with curiosity. His eyes lock with the boys and Yuu sucks in a breath. Who is he? He's never seen him before, but with the way his body is warming up, he wouldn't mind getting to know him.

"Yuuichirou!"

Yuu's gaze flies back to the ingredients in his hand, but it's too late he's already put in the wrong amounts and ruined the potion. Yuu barely has time to curse before the potion bubbles over and fills the classroom with a dense pink smoke making it hard to breathe and impossible to see.

"No one move!" Yuu's master, Guren, bellows in annoyance. By the time, Guren clears the smoke and Yuu can see the door again, the boy is already gone. When Yuu turns back to Guren, his master is glaring at him and all Yuu can do is give a sheepish smile.

~~~~~
After the lesson is over and his humiliating display is put behind him, Yuu runs to catch up with his master. "Guren! Hey wait! Didn't you hear me calling you?"

"I heard you."

Yuu gives him a sour look, "Who was that boy?"

"What boy?"

"The boy that made me ruin my potion."

"Yuu, that was your fault, don't try to blame someone else."

"No, it's true! He was watching in the door!"

Guren sighs, "What did this boy look like?"

"Uh...well he looked my age and he had this really blonde hair, it was like gold and...he had really pretty blue eyes!"

Guren pauses and gives Yuu a sidelong look, "So that's why the smoke was pink."

"What? No!"

Guren chuckles and ruffles Yuu's hair, ignoring his protests. "Do us both a favor and focus on your studies," Guren tells him walking off.

"So, you do know who he is!"

"Focus on your studies, Yuu!" Guren calls back to him.

~~~~~
"Aw shit," Yuu mutters sucking on his finger. That's the second time he's burnt himself trying to do this fire spell. At least, he didn't singe his eyebrows off this time, he never lived that down until they grew back.

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

Yuu whirls around to find the source of the voice. Who dares to mock him and let's see if they can do any better. Yuu freezes when he catches sight of the boy leaning against the wall, resting his head on folded arms. It's the boy from a few days ago that made him ruin his potion! He's gazing at Yuu with a smile pulling up the corner of his mouth and a mischievous glint in his cerulean eyes. Well, no matter how attractive the boy is, Yuu'll prove him wrong and impress him all at once.

"Oh yeah? Watch me!"

"Wait! Let me take cover first."

"Haha, you won't be joking around after this." Yuu rolls up his sleeves and quickly searches his memory for an easy spell. One to change the appearance of his clothes, perfect. Yuu puffs out his chest and recites the spell, closing his eyes and praying he gets it right.

He opens one eye to gauge the boy's reaction and he's met with shocked cerulean eyes. Yuu grins, "See, I told you I could do it!"

"You did something alright," and then he collapses on the wall in laughter.

"What?" Yuu looks down at his body. His robes are see through now. "Shit! Stop laughing, it's not funny!"

"It is!

Yuu frantically tries to cover himself, there's no way he can fix the spell in his state of embarrassment, but there's nothing around he can use. Yuu watches him laugh, blue eyes crinkling in the corners, perfect white teeth flashing in a wide smile. Yuu clenches his fists, he'll definitely impress him next time is his last thought before running off to change.

~~~~~
"I see you've managed to cover yourself today."

Yuu's head whips around to lock with that taunting blue gaze and he feels his cheeks color, "That was a fluke!"

"Uh huh. How long did it take you to fix?"

"Not long at all!"

"I'd be willing to forget last time and let you try it again if you want."

"No way! I mean….I'm working on something else this time."

"Oh really? Like invisible shoes?"

"No! What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Just passing by and thought I'd keep you company."

"Only if you stay quiet, I have to concentrate."

"I'll try my best," Mika solemnly tells him.

Yuu takes a breath, hyper aware of the eyes resting on him, Guren told him to try simpler spells like growing a plant. It's already there, he just has to make it grow faster, rather than create something from nothing. Yuu kneels on the ground and places his hands on top of the seed he planted. Just a little magic, Guren said, but nothing's happening. This is making him look bad, Yuu attempts to slyly glance over towards the wall, but the boy catches his eye and shoots a smirk back at him.

He can't fail again, dammit! With renewed determination, Yuu forces more magic into the ground and he's rewarded immediately with the feel of the plant growing. Perfect. Guren didn't know what he was talking about, it's more not less.

The first tendrils peek through the ground and Yuu shoots the boy a triumphant grin before concentrating back on the plant. Except, now it's growing too fast and Yuu moves his hands away, but he's already given it too much magic. He's hastily crawling away when the first vine wraps around his ankle. Yuu screams and claws at the ground to anchor himself, despite his struggle, he's still dragged away. By the time the plant stops growing, he's dangling ten feet in the air by his ankle. His robes are flipped over his head, blocking his view, not that he'd want to see, he can hear the boy's laughter well enough, he doesn't need to see it too.

"Nice polka dot underwear," he hears him laughs out. Yuu closes his eyes and prays that the boy leaves him to suffer in peace, alas his prayers are not answered and he appears below Yuu looking up at him with sparkling blue eyes full of laughter and a smirk to match. "I'm impressed."

Yuu sighs, "Can you please just go get help?"

"Really? You sure you don't want to just 'hang' around a while."

Yuu groans.

~~~~~
"What's your name?"

"Why should I tell you, Yuu-i-chi-rou?"

"Hey, you know my name!"

Mikaela shrugs and smiles, "It's not hard to find out the name of the guy who filled a classroom with pink smoke."

Yuu flushes, "That was an accident! And it was your fault too!"

"Mine? I was just watching."

Yuu folds his arms, "No one told you to open the door and watch."

"The whole room was watching you."

"So!"

"Well, if you feel like that, I guess I'll leave."

Yuu panics, "No don't leave!" He looks sheepishly at the ground, "I just meant…surprised me…staring…pretty…eyes," Yuu mumbles out.

Mikaela doesn't understand all of what Yuu's mumbling about, but he gets the gist of it and gives Yuu a soft smile, reaching out to lift his chin up. "If you do a spell correctly, I'll tell you my name. How about that?"

Yuu's eyes light up and a grin splits his face, "Yes! You'll tell me your name in no time!"

It takes him five days to get Mikaela's name.

~~~~~
Mikaela arrives at the courtyard to see it covered in snow and Yuu sitting in the middle, despondently making snowballs.

"Hey Yuu-chan! Did you do this? It's great!"

"No, Guren did. I'm supposed to get rid of it, but everytime I try, more appears."

Mika grabs a snowball from Yuu's hand, "So you gave up and decided to make snowballs?"

"I'm taking a break," he counters defensively.

"Suuure you are," Mika teases. "Taking a break to play in the snow." Yuu glowers at him. "Come make a snowman with me, it's the only way this snow's gonna get moved."

"No way, I'm working!"

Mika launches the snowball and hits Yuu in the face with deadly precision, "Quit sulking and come help me."

Yuu wastes no time shooting to his feet and wiping the snow from his face, but instead of helping him, he dive tackles Mika into a mound of snow, shoving his head in, "Apologize and I'll let you go!"

Mika reaches back and yanks Yuu's hand off his head, "Even if I could apologize with a face full of snow, I wouldn't!" Mika flips them over and shoves a handful of snow in Yuu's mouth, from there proceeds a brief, but intense scuffle consisting of lots of snow and robe pulling that Mika, of course, wins.

Yuu collapse across him, ignoring the dirty look Mika gives him for ruining his snow angel, "Why are you so mean to me?" He mutters.

"I'm not mean to you," Mika smiles over at him, "I like you, terrible magic skills and all, that's why I come see you."

Yuu feels himself starting to color a bit under Mika's gaze, "I like you too…" Although, Yuu's pretty sure he means it in a different way than Mika.

The grin he receives in response is brighter than ever, "Good! Cause I don't plan on staying away." He pinches one of Yuu's slightly pink cheeks, "Does that make you happy?"

Yuu can't deny the rush of happiness he feels from Mika's words, so ignoring Mika's laughter, he settles for looking everywhere except at Mikaela and willing the color in his cheeks to go down.

Mika leans forward to place a quick kiss on Yuu's cheek, "Come on, Yuu-can, let's go get some hot chocolate."

Yuu willingly obliges.

~~~~~
Yuuichirou watches his fair-haired friend study the blue roses in the courtyard and frowns. Mika's supposed to be paying attention to him, not the flowers. Then again, this could be a perfect opportunity. He squats down next to Mika, "You like roses?"

"They're nice, I hardly ever see them in a color other than red."

"Okay," Yuu claps his hands together. "Then I'll show you something you'll really like!"

"No, that's okay!" Mika throws himself in front of the flowers and braces for the worst. However, instead of the disaster he expected, he's surprised to see rose petals drifting down, a lot of them in various colors, blue, green, purple, but no red.

Yuu grins downs at him, "See, I told you you'd like it!"

"I'm...shocked."

Yuu dusts a few petals from Mika's hair and pulls him up to crush him in a hug. Mika rests his hands lightly on Yuu's waist and gazes at the multicolored petals swirling down. Yuuichirou really did do a good job with this spell, it's beautiful and the courtyard's probably several inches deep in petals by now, soft enough to rest on. Apparently, his raven-haired friend is thinking the same thing because they fall backwards in a cloud of petals, the layers cushioning them.

Yuu sits up, blocking Mika's view of what's fast becoming a storm of petals, he brings Mika's hand to his cheek and cradles it, "See, I can do magic. So, don't give up on me," Yuu looks down at him imploringly.

Mika smiles up at him, "Yuu-chan, I never said I didn't believe in you." Yuu rubs his face against Mika's palm. "Although, you probably should stop the spell, it's turning into a blizzard."

"Mmm, I can't."

Mika looks into the emerald eyes staring into his, "Huh?"

"I don't know how."

"Yuu-chan…." Mika sighs in fond exasperation.

~~~~~
"Hey! Mika! You're here!" Yuu calls out to him with a grin.

"Don't I always come to see you?"

"Perfect timing!" Yuu runs over to grab Mika's wrists and drag him into the courtyard, "I need an assistant."

"Wait! I don't think that's a good idea," Mikaela says pulling his wrists free.

"It's a simple spell, really! I'm just going to make it rain around you, but not on you!"

"I don't know…"

"Please Mikaela."

"Fine."

"Okay, just stand there."

Mika stands where Yuu indicates, although he's pretty sure he's going to regret it. Yuu mentally runs through the spell before raising his arms and reciting it. Yuu's eyes flash open when he hears the telltale sound of rain and he looks up to see a drenched Mikaela giving him a flat stare.

"It only rained on me, Yuu-chan."

"S-sorry."

Mikaela sneezes.

~~~~~
Yuu's doing well, he's finally controlling his mini whirlwind and it's slowly getting bigger and faster. He grins and steps back preparing to increase the force when his eyes catch on Mikaela who's sitting on the wall watching him again. He hasn't seen him in days! And just like that he loses his concentration and the whirlwind goes out of control, knocking him to the ground and Mikaela off the wall.

"Shit!" Yuu hastily stands up and runs to Mikaela helping him up.

"Why am I not surprised? I'm leaving."

"No!" Yuu grabs onto him, "You just got here. I haven't seen you in days!"

"Of course you haven't, I've been sick in bed after being rained on in case you forgot."

"Oh yeah…but please stay anyway? I'm getting better I swear."

Mikaela turns in Yuu's hold and reaches out to touch Yuu's cheek, "….only if you make it up to me."

Yuu feels a tingling on his cheek where Mikaela touches and wonders what it'd be like if Mikaela touched him with more than just friendly intent. He will win his affection! Yuu lets go of him and runs back to the center of the courtyard, "Okay! I have the perfect spell to show you, just watch!"

Mika rolls his eyes, that's not what he meant. Yuuichirou is so oblivious.

~~~~~
"Mika!" Yuu runs over to where Mikaela is seated in his usual spot on the wall. Yuu throws himself between Mika's legs and buries his face in Mika's stomach bringing up his arms to encircle his waist.

Mika rests a hand on Yuu's head, "What's wrong Yuu-chan?"

"I'm so hungry! Guren's making me practice until I get the spell right, but it's so hard," Yuu whines. "I need fooood!"

"What'll you give me for it?"

"I'll do whatever spell you want?"

"I don't want a spell, Yuu."

"Then what?"

"Think more physical," Mika cards his fingers through Yuu's hair.

"A potion?"

Mika sighs, when is it Yuu going to get it. "Never mind. Here." Mika pulls a stuffed bun from his bag which Yuu eagerly takes.

"Thanks Mika! You're the best!"

~~~~~
Mikaela comes to sit next to Yuu in the courtyard, "I heard you failed your exam."

"Yeah and I practiced so much too," Yuu leans against his shoulder and sighs.

"I brought you some pastries to cheer you up."

"I'm too depressed to move, feed me?" Yuu sends him a pleading look.

Mika rolls his eyes, but acquiesces and holds a danish to Yuu's mouth which he eagerly eats, so much for him being too depressed to move.

When Yuu finishes, Mika wipes the crumbs away with his thumb and Yuu shuts his eyes, humming in contentment.

Mikaela shakes his head, Yuu already has his heart and he doesn't even know it.

~~~~~
Sometime during Yuu's practicing, Mika has quietly dozed off under the shade of a tree, Yuu guesses he finally got tired of laughing at all his mistakes. He stretches out next to Mika and stares up. Why is magic so hard? Mika will never think anything of him if he can't ever get his spells , some other talented sorcerer will come along, impress Mika with his magic, then they'll get married and live happily ever after while Yuu remains a lonely failure. Or maybe he'll end up with a farmer or merchant that he could grow to love.

Yuu's so far into his brooding that he doesn't notice Mika has woken up and moved closer, burying his face in Yuu's neck. He only notices when he feels something wet on his neck and he instinctively jerks, but Mika doesn't move from his position. Is he….licking him?

He's not sure what exactly Mikaela's doing, but it feels weird and it's making him squirm, however he can't bring himself to say anything because this may be one of the last times he gets to be near Mika once he realizes what a failure Yuu is.

"Hey Mika...I think I'll probably marry a farmer or a merchant," Yuu states forlornly. "That's not too bad, is it?

Mika freezes, "What." Yuu feels a sharp pinch on his side.

"Hey, ow! What was that for?"

"Are you kidding me? You're going to marry a farmer or a merchant?"

"Uh...yeah, maybe?"

"You're a terrible person, Yuu-chan!" Mika looks so angry with him and he's not sure why. Are those such bad options? "You're hopeless!"

~~~~~
Mika's been pouting at him lately when he thinks Yuu's not watching, it's cute as hell and Yuu would love to kiss the pout off those plump pink lips, but he doesn't think Mika would take too kindly to that. And he still can't figure out why Mika's been annoyed with him, he wants his cheery blonde friend back. He still comes by when Yuu practices, but he doesn't tease as much as he used to, that's something Yuu is surprised to find himself missing.

"Guren," Yuu sighs, "I think Mika's angry with me."

"How is that possible? As many times as he's gotten caught in the backlash of your spells gone wrong and he's never been angry with you, not even when you got him sick. What did you do?"

"That's just it, I have no clue! We were just lying there and I asked him if me marrying a farmer or merchant was so bad and he got angry at me!"

"You said that to him, Yuu?"

"Yeah...I've been trying to impress him for so long, but I suck at magic and he's never going to like me."

"You really are an idiot, Yuu. Anyone can see that Mikaela really likes you. Why? I have no idea, but do you think he'd come around almost everyday just to watch anyone make a fool of themselves? He comes because it's you."

"What? No, he doesn't. We're friends, Guren, I'd know if he liked me. He just comes to tease me."

"You're impossible, no wonder he got frustrated with you. Go tell him how you feel, he probably thinks you have the emotional range of a rock."

"...What if you're wrong?"

"I'm not. You better tell him before he ends up marrying a farmer or merchant."

~~~~~
Yuu huddles near the edge of the courtyard out of sight. He's been waiting for Mikaela to arrive, so he could do what Guren said, but he didn't want Mika to catch him off guard before he was ready, so he had hidden. He sees Mika arrive and frown when he doesn't see Yuu before taking his usual seat on the courtyard wall.

Yuu comes up behind him and takes a breath, "Hey Mika."

Mika startles and loses his balance, but Yuu slips an arm around his waist to catch him mid fall. Mika looks back at him, "Why aren't you practicing?"

"I was waiting for you." Yuu uses his other arm to slide under Mika's legs and lift him off the wall to hold him and Mikaela automatically locks his arms around Yuu's neck. Mika's actually surprisingly light.

"Oh."

Yuu looks down at Mikaela and notices his pink tinged cheeks and the shy smile on his face. This is the quietest he's ever seen him and it's when Yuu's carrying him, maybe, just maybe Guren was right after all. And if he is, well you can't help but tease Mika a bit after all the teasing he's endured, "So...I think I found who I want to marry."

Mika's shy smile immediately morphs into a frown, "Why? It's too soon, you may not even want to be married to a merchant or a farmer later! They're probably awful, you may find someone else you like better later!"

"Yeah, but even if I found someone else I like more later, I wouldn't leave them, that wouldn't be right."

Yuu feels MIka's arm squeeze tighter around his neck, "That's why you should wait! You don't have to pick someone now, do you?" Mika questions almost pleadingly.

"Hmm. Even if it's you?"

Mika freezes, "H-huh?"

"Even. If. It's. You?"

Yuu smirks lightly at Mika's confusion before leaning down to kiss him, it's soft, warm, and as perfect as he imagined. It's only broken when he hears Mika mutter 'finally' against his lips and Yuu laughs because finally indeed.