No real warnings, except for an annoyed Harry. And a completely unsafe way to clean a freezer, but that's never stopped me, and its damn fun.
Frozen
"Bloody useless, all of them" Harry muttered to himself as he made his way around the small discount shop around the corner from the garage. The place was fairly typical, selling odds and ends, sweets, tissues and such, as well as plenty of D.I.Y. necessities and electrical things that the ex-wizard stayed well away from.
The brunette stalked towards the counter and all but slammed his basket down. "I need a large bowl, cheap, plastic if you've got it, preferably idiot-proof." The young clerk, though he was actually a few years older than the mage, stared at Harry in confusion, before glancing into the basket. He paled a bit and left.
Harry's scowl deepened and he was on the verge of screaming when an older woman came and took the clerk's place. She too looked into the basket, and paused for a moment and then understanding dawned. "Blocked up freezer?" Harry eased a bit as she got to scanning his items. The small hammer was first.
"Yeah. I need a- actually , I probably need two bowls, big, cheap-
"Idiot proof. That bad?" She made a sympathetic noise as the ice scraper beeped, quickly followed by the chisel.
"You have no freaking idea." I don't think anyone thought to even check in the past two years." Harry's scowl came back full force as he thought of his moronic flatmates.
The woman glanced up, surprised. "That's leaving it a bit long. How did they not notice something wrong before?" A rather spiky looking instrument that no one wanted to examine more closely was swiped through and added to the bag. "I take it you're newer to the house? How did you get landed with the job?"
Harry snorted. "It could be that I'm the only one with any idea of what to do."
At this the woman started and looked up."But it's not rocket science."
"It would probably be better if it was. Then they wouldn't keep trying to turn it into a blasted equation."
"You live with scientists?"
"No, I live with bloody duellist engineers" Harry's eye twitched, and he eyed the small hammer that was quickly shoved into his growing bag. "They were talking about ways to equip duel runners with de-icing components when I left. At the very least, I'm going to need the stress relief."
Harry snorted quietly, then idly commented, "Maybe I should get Jack to do it next time.
"And of course, none of them realise that it's just a matter of getting your hands dirty." The woman's sympathetic look was back. "My husband was the same. Never cleaned out a freezer drawer in his life. Got the living daylights frightened out of him when he saw me swinging the hammer at it."
"Really?" A slow, malicious smile spread across Harry's face as he eyed the bigger D.I.Y tools out the front. He turned his most angelic look on the lady at the counter, but it didn't quite hide the evil glint in his eye. "How much is the sledge hammer out front?"
The woman stared. "Oh you evil boy." She started smiling back. "Now why didn't I think of that?"
XXxXX
It was early evening when the group returned, accompanied by Bruno, Akiza and the twins. Leo was chattering away enthusiastically about the test duel Crow and Yusei had run, bouncing around while his sister shook her head.
They had just entered the garage proper when Leo squawked and went flying, landing face first in a bowl of melting ice. The gang stopped and stared as the young boy shrieked and practically flew to get away from the cold slush.
"Uh guys," Akiza began. "Did any of you leave a bowl of ice out?"
"Why did you leave a bowl of ice out? Was it some kind of experiment? Cause, y'know, guys, ice melts. Not much more to it." Bruno shrank away from the glare Jack sent at him.
"Why would any of us leave ice out? Besides, we've been gone all day, if we'd left it out it would just be warmish water by now" Crow countered, but looked just as confused as his companions.
Everyone turned as one to Yusei, and stared at him expectantly. The brunette duellist frowned and repressed a sigh. How the hell was he supposed to know? "The only other person that could have been in here is-"
Thwack. Crash. A tinkling that sounded vaguely of broken glass, and a satisfied swearing.
Harry was the only one any of them had ever met who could sound satisfied while swearing. The wizard blamed it on his dorm mates, particularly someone named Seamus, and a pair of unnamed twins.
They rushed as one into the next room, and this time it was Crow who slipped.
They were met with the sight of their slight friend buried up to the waste in the giant freezer they'd assumed was broken. Harry was surrounded by puddles of freezing water and seemed to have something spiky in his left hand. There was a rapid thudding and another high chime of breaking what was now obviously ice. The wizard pulled back and shook his head sending droplets of water everywhere. He was about to dive back in when Jack cleared his cleared his throat.
Harry snapped his head around. "Oh, there you are. Right, one of you take that smaller bowl and fill it with boiling water, k? Seems to be shifting quick enough, but I'll probably be here another while." He turned back after pointing to one of the bowls he'd bought that morning.
Yusei opened his mouth, about to ask what Harry was doing, when the wizard swung his right arm back, revealing the new hammer, and brought it down. There was another thud and more tinkling, but it was covered by Crow's chocked "The hell are you doing? That's our freezer!"
Harry answered without turning. "Yeah, a perfectly good freezer that you'd all written off because none of you could be bothered to clean it. Now get the damn water or I'll shove ice down your trousers. I've suddenly got plenty to spare, see?" Thud. Tinkle
Crow scrambled back, snatching up the bowl as he went. They'd all learned that their flatmate wasn't one to make idle threats.
Yusei moved forward cautiously. "Why are you attacking the freezer?"
"I'm not attacking the bloody freezer, I'm cleaning it."
"You're hitting it with a hammer and chisel" the duellist pointed out reasonably, or at least he thought so.
"Clearly you have never cleaned a freezer before. It's over-frozen. There's too much ice. The door wouldn't close. Logical solution: clear the ice" Thud. Scritch.
The hammer was making Yusei a little nervous, but he masked it and soldiered on. "But freezers are meant to make ice..."
"Not this much." Thud, scritch. Crash.
Yusei couldn't suppress a slight wince. "Ah, well, isn't there a... less violent way of cleaning it?"
Silence. It was then that Yusei realised that his other friends had fled with Crow, and he was alone with the potentially volatile and pissed off brunette.
"Yusei," the tone was far too sweet. "Have you ever cleaned a freezer before? No? Well, it takes a certain care. The right angle, not freezing or scalding yourself, the right tools, and just the right amount of brute force." Thud. "Of course, it probably wouldn't be necessary if anyone had cleaned this particular freezer regularly, but there you are. There's no going back now."
Yusei, who had been easing back as Harry spoke, froze as green eyes, almost glowing in the evening light, pinned him. White teeth flashed.
"Now be a good boy and get me that water, would you. Oh, and don't trip over the sledge hammer on your way out."
Yusei's footsteps and hammering heart were echoed by light thuds.
XXxXX
"Think he's still alive?" Bruno whispered to Akiza as they hung back by the duel runners.
There was a sudden creaking, followed by a loud crash. Crow, just coming back in from the kitchen with the bowl, dropped it, barely avoiding scalding himself.
"If he is, he won't be for much longer."
XXxXX
I seem to like annoying Harry to the point of violence. Not so much going on here, but I did something similar to my dad once, except with a mallet. The sledge hammer didn't get nearly as much attention as I wanted it to. Ah well.
This can be taken as the same world as LLC but doesn't have to be. At the moment I'm just throwing snippets out that may reflect on a longer fic (if I can even get past the 2000 word mark).
Let me know what you think!
P.S. If I've spelled something wrong please tell me! It's something that really gets to me, I'm an awful typist. Spellcheck is my godsend but I do miss things.
zyrea