Accidents
Summary: Ban receives one of those annoying birthday presents that you can't throw away but you don't want to keep
Accident of Fate
Midou Ban sat at his usual table at the Honky Tonky, eying the table with deep displeasure. It wasn't his half-finished meal that he was staring at- it was to odd shaped piece of cloth next to it.
The cloth was about five inches long and half an inch wide, with two tube-like openings on either end. It curved in the middle and was thicker at the ends. It was colored bright purple with a pattern of little pink flowers. The device was designed to attach to one end of someone's glasses, wrap around their head, then attach to the other earpiece. It was supposed to keep someone's glasses from falling off.
It was not something the cool Midou Ban would be caught dead wearing.
As if reading his thoughts, Paul said pointedly, "You know Ginji will be very disappointed if you never use his birthday present for you."
"He'll get over it," Ban growled.
Paul continued relentlessly, "Ginji come to me begging for work in order to make money for your birthday. I didn't need any help, especially from that klutz, so I tried to discourage him by giving him the most unpleasant jobs I could think of. Then I subtracted twice the value of everything he broke from his meager wages. He just kept coming back, working for even longer hours. Just to get you a birthday present."
"But what possessed him to get me that!?"
"He said it would keep you glasses from falling off when you fight. Plus, he'd noticed you often seemed to push up your glasses after a retrieval. He wanted to get you a purple one to match your purple shades, and the flowered one was all he could find."
Ban groaned. Didn't Ginji know that pushing up his glasses was his cool signature move after he used his evil eye? He needed to pull down his glasses for the Jagan to work! Aggressively, he asked, "If you knew all this, why didn't you stop him from buying something so ugly?"
"He didn't tell me until after he'd bought them, and at that point I couldn't bring myself to burst his bubble."
Ban understood the feeling all too well. Deliberately or not, his partner knew just how to tug at people's heart strings. And he cried easily. But what was Ban supposed to do? Wear the dreaded things, apparently.
Obviously this was yet another trial brought on by his cursed fate.
As he sat at the table, poking at his food and trying to resign himself to the situation, Natsumi appeared, carrying a cup of coffee. "Your order is here," she called cheerfully- then tripped and spilled the drink.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"It's okay."
"But your cloth thingy, it's ruined!"
A smile began to spread across Ban's face. "So it is. And I can't wear it if it's ruined."
"I'm so sorry-"
"Natsumi, you're a life saver!" Ban ran out of the restaurant, laughing maniacally.
Natsumi stared after him, open-mouthed. "Master…"
"Yes?"
"Ban-san left without paying for his meal…"
Paul sweatdropped. "I suppose I could let him off this time. After all, you did spill his coffee. Although he actually should have been paying you extra for that."
"Master, what do you mean?"
"Never mind. Just put it on his tab."