A messy head of brown hair that had spikes pointing every which way poked itself into Merlin's house through the door, which had been left ajar. It swiveled about, bright blue eyes under the fringe eyeing around the large room.
"Merlin?" called Sora, pushing the door open and walking in completely, scratching at his messy head of hair and continuing to look around.
"Merlin?" the brunette repeated a little louder, coming up on his tip-toes and looking around, over his button-nose, as though the man he was looking for, was hiding behind one of the bookcases or something.
Sora dropped back to standing in the normal way, and pouted.
Where was that damn magician?
Sora's irritation vanished when he spotted something fluffy.
Hurrying over to the fluffy thing, Sora recognized it as a stuffed owl. It was about the size of a mediem-sized teapot –coincidentally, there was one beside it–, it's fluffy light-brown feathers neatly groomed, and it's large eyes closed.
The Keyblade-Master was just about to poke the stuffed owl when there was a loud PUFF. Sora whipped around with wide blue eyes and his hands raised, ready to blurt 'I wasn't touching anything!'.
"Ah, there you are, my boy!" chuckled Merlin, waving away the smoke that had inadvertently been what had created the 'puff' sound a few seconds earlier. He had just appeared out of nowhere. Again. "You're earlier than I expected."
Sora sent a quick glance over his shoulder at the stuffed owl, before striding forward and beaming at Merlin. "You were expecting me?" he chirped.
"But of course!" Merlin smiled. "I wouldn't be much of a magician if I didn't."
The Keyblade-weilder giggled happily. The Magician stroked his beard, before walking past Sora and toward the round table a little way away. "Would you like a cup of tea, Sora?"
"Sure! Four sugars, please!"
Merlin nodded, before looking around. "Oh, bother," he huffed, placing a hand on his hip. "Teapot!" he called, still looking around, head swiveling this way and that. "Teapot!"
There was a tinkle, and Sora looked up to see the shiny blue teapot sitting on the same bookshelf as the stuffed owl. The young brunette grinned at the sight of a pretty pink bow tied to the teapot's handle.
"Teapot!" Merlin barked.
Sora gave a squeak of surprise as the teapot suddenly twitched, it's spout perking up like a nose of a dog, before it jumped off the bookshelf, landed beside Sora's foot, and went about tinkling over to Merlin.
The brunette stared in delighted awe at the teapot, grinning when Merlin let out a squawk as the teapot jumped on his foot. "There you are," Merlin huffed, lifting the teapot up with both hands, and placing it on the table before him, where a procession of teacups had appeared.
"Keep disappearing like that, and I might have to get one of those brass teapots," the magician threatened with a wave of a finger. The teapot trembled, before a gust of steam shot out of it's spout, the piece of ceramic letting out a high-pitched whistle.
Merlin picked out two mugs out of the line of multicoloured, many-shaped teacups, before placing them in front of the teapot, which seemed to be humming.
Sora beamed. He always liked Merlin. It was like the man had forgotten one-hundred times more than any person could've known in a lifetime. Sending a glance at the stuffed owl, Sora wondered if it too would hop up and start making tea. The brunette looked back at Merlin and grinned. "That's a nifty stuffed owl you've got!"
"STUFFED OWL?!"
Sora let out a squawk of shock at the high-pitched shriek, flinging his arms over his head and staring around for the disembodied voice.
His eyes then connected with the stuffed owl.
It was not stuffed.
It was staring at him with humungous yellow eyes, it's feathery eyebrows drought down in between them at a painful angle, and it's fluffy chest puffed out in barely-controlled rage.
"I AM NO STUFFED OWL!" it shrieked, ruffling it's feathers and puffing it's chest out a little more, making Sora think the bird might explode some time soon.
"Come, come now, Archimedes," Merlin jibed, walking over to the owl and waving a finger. "This is Sora. You know, the Keyblade-Master?"
"Who-who, what-what?!" squawked the owl, staring at Sora as though the child had grown two more heads and fourteen extra appendages."This boy?"
Merlin nodded, seemingly unaware of Sora's small scowl at being referred to a just a 'boy'. Archimedes, the owl, stared at Sora for a few more moments, before throwing his feathery head back and letting out a loud hoot of laughter.
"Hey!" Sora objected, stamping his foot. "I'm not just a boy!"
"Pinfeathers and gullyfluff!" barked Archimedes, throwing Sora a seedy glare, the teen only just holding back from shrinking away from the bird. "No child this size could be the Keyblade-Master!"
With that, Archimedes turned his back on them, flicked his fluffy tail in the air, and waddled into a small, hollow, log-like thing via a knot-hole. Merlin shook his head at the log, which was sitting on the bookshelf also, before turning to Sora.
The brunette was looking down at his shoes, hands clasped in front of him, posture slouched.
Sora's head snapped up at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder. Merlin smiled at him, giving him a quick wink, before his hand dropped. He walked back over to the teapot, which seemed to be doing a little jig, as though it was a little impatient.
The Keyblade-Master smiled a little, before walking over to Merlin's side, to see the magician lining up a third cup. The teapot poured equal serves of tea into the teacups, before hopping back off the table, and onto the bookshelf where it was before.
Sora was about to grab the cup closest to him, when there was a quick thwack and stinging pain. He let out a quiet yelp and yanked back his hand, staring at a small, round, red mark on the back of his hand.
"Sugar," Merlin threatened.
The sugar pot stood beside Sora's teacup, it's small handles shaped like arms, a small silver spoon held up over it's lid like a club.
Sora had just been smacked by a sugar pot. The brunette blinked.
The sugar pot lowered it's makeshift club, before turning to Merlin, who waved a hand in a dismissive manner. "Say when," he added to Sora, who was nursing his hand to his chest.
The brunette opened his mouth to ask what the magician meant, when the sugar pot lifted off it's lid, dunked the spoon into itself, and started spooning out sugar into Sora's cup.
"When," stated the brunette after the sugar put had dropped four spoonfuls of sugar into his teacup.
The sugar pot jumped, then hurried to the next cup.
"When," Merlin sighed after two spoons of sugar had been dropped into the second cup. The sugar pot hurried to the third one.
Sora picked up his tea, and blew at the steam carefully. Merlin stirred the second teacup, before pouring a little bit of brandy into the cup, and stirring that in too. "So," the magician hummed. "That was Archimedes, my Highly Educated Owl."
The Keyblade-Master rose his eyebrows over the rim of his mug before his eyes looked over to the log on the bookshelf. Downing the rest of his tea, he set the empty cup back down on the table. "Is he always that grumpy?" Sora asked.
Merlin smiled and nodded, holding out the teacup he'd stirred the brandy into. Sora blinked at it, but took it none the less, looking back at Merlin, to see the magician pointing at the log on the bookshelf.
Oh. Right. Peace-offering.
Walking over to the log, Sora knocked on the edge of it hesitantly.
"What?" came a haughty huff from inside.
Sora held the teacup in front of the knot-hole.
After a moment, a clawed foot poked itself out of the log, hooked itself around the handle of the teacup, and yanked it into the log.
Sora pouted. "A thank-you would've been nice," he mumbled, before turning to Merlin, to see the magician waving his arms around, screaming 'when! WHEN!'. Sora yelped and ducked as the sugar pot shot over his head and hid somewhere behind the couch.
Merlin muttered curses in many a different language, using the end of his beard to dust away the mountain of sugar covering the third teacup he'd forgotten about. Sora appeared by his elbow. "Merlin?" the boy ventured.
Merlin looked over and smiled. "Ah, yes. You wanted something?"
Sora nodded. "Leon said you had something he wanted."
The magician nodded, and rose his wand, giving Sora a light rap on the head with it.
The Keyblade-Master yelped, before he felt a tickling sensation in his nose, and he sneezed. Opening his eyes again, he saw a long, pretty, orange-white feather floating in front of his face.
"What is it?" Sora gaped, raising a hand and letting the feather float down, into his hand. It felt warm.
"Phoenix feather." Merlin explained, twirling his wand through his fingers. "The phoenixes don't really like giving them up much, anymore. Going bald isn't a good look. You wouldn't like yanking out your feathers, would you?"
Sora blinked, and carefully curled his fingers around the feather, as not to crush it, but keep it in place. "No," he answered, staring at the magician. "I don't think I would."
Merlin nodded authoritatively, before looking behind him, ushering a large and squishy red armchair over. The armchair loafed over, as though it was either half-asleep or had all the time in the world, and sat itself behind Merlin. The Magician sank into it gratefully.
"How did you get it, then?" Sora asked, glancing at the feather before looking back at the magician.
"Looney Tunes." Merlin stated. "They're a fan of the Road Runner."
Sora blinked, before nodding. He could understand that.
A few minutes later, with a wave and a smile, Sora pranced out the door and walked off to find Leon, Merlin tapping his wand against the arm of his armchair thoughtfully.
"He's a little like Wart."
"Hmm?" Merlin looked up, to find Archimedes sitting on his pointy hat, his usual sour scowl on his feathery face. The magician chuckled. "Ah, yes. I thought that you would say that."
Archimedes sent a beady look down at Merlin, before letting out a quiet huff.
Sora later found Leon in Ansem's computer-room, and handed over the feather. All the younger brunette got was a nod in thanks, but that was enough for Sora to beam so wide his ears should've fallen off.
From that day onwards, whenever he went to Merlin's, he left a cup of tea beside Archimedes' log. When and if they became friends, Sora supposed that the owl would be interesting to talk to.
A few weeks later, Sora could've sworn he saw something orange and white tied around Cloud's neck by a braided piece of black silk, but, he couldn't see it that well, because it was under Cloud's shirt.
Shrugging it off and slamming his pillow into the back of Riku's head, the oddity flew from his mind the moment his silver-haired friend tripped him up and started tickling him mercilessly.
((END. I've been meaning to write this ever since I played Kingdom Hearts Two, then watched Sword In The Stone, to find that Archimedes wasn't in Kingdom Hearts. It's a lot longer than I meant it to be, and has a lot of meaningless drivel, but, it has Archimedes in it, so, I'm happy. . . And some gratuitous LeonCloud hints. You can just ignore those, if you like.))