Disclaimer: I don't own Negima. I DO own Dom. Don't sue.

Chapter 2: French people are weird...


"HIYA!"

"JESUS PEPE CHRIST!" Dominique shouted, freaked out by the sudden, near-shouting voice behind him. Konoka leaned over his shoulder and smiled.

"Welcome to the dorm!" she sang out, sweeping her hand as if displaying some giant piece of art instead of the dorm common room. Dom visibly relaxed. Okay, I'm not dead yet. I thinks that's good.... He managed to etch out a grin.

"I'm glad to be here, " he replied mostly truthfully. While there was the possibility of innumerable tortures in the dorms, it was better then his life in France. After talking to her a bit, Dom headed towards the snack bar. Grabbing a cup of punch, he leans back against a wall and sips it slowly. "They're just like normal teen girls," he mumbled, watching the party, "except that one has a sniper rifle strapped to her back... WTF?" He pulled out the strip of paper Negi had given him earlier and read it out loud. "Hmmm, Dorm 7 with-" he squints at the paper, "How does that kid write so small? Zazie Rainyday (what a weird name), Mana Tatsumiya (isn't Mana from a card game?), and Ku Fei with a funny mark over the e." He stuffed the paper back into his pocket and tossed the empty punch cup into the trash. "Now to-"

"HELLO DOM!" Fuka and Fumika said as they jumped out from behind plant

"GAH!" Dom once again shouted, stumbling backwards. "Why does this keep happening to me?" They both giggled before Fuka asked what he was doing. "Erm, looking for my new roommates?"

"Search no more!" they chorused, grabbing his hand and causing him to flinch, "We'll lead the way!" The poor boy managed to squeak out a "Qui?" before being dragged by both twins to the nearest girl. Which happened to be Nodoka. Who promptly blushed and ran away after Dom was introduced to her. Dom scratched behind his head and said

"Well, that could have gone better." He uttered, sweat dropping at the girls reaction. Fuka shook her head.

"She's always like that around guys" she said, with Fumika nodding her head in agreement. "Except around Negi." Fumika giggled. "She has a major crush on him. They once went to Magic Land together," she said, gesturing at the boy teacher with one hand.

Isn't a 14-year-old and a 10-year-old going out illegal? Dom wondered before asking

"Wouldn't it help a bit if you knew who my roommates were?" The twins look apprehensive.

"True. Who are you rooming with?" They chorused. Dom chuckles and pulls out the slip that Negi had given him. One of the twins (they had moved around quite a bit while talking and Dom was now thoroughly confused which one was which) grabbed the paper and read it aloud. "Hmmm, Zazie and Ku Fei. Where would they be, Fumika?" The other pink-haired girl pointed to where Zazie was standing near a window. She was looking at a bird that was perched on her finger, almost as if she was communicating with it. Fuka grabbed Dom's other arm and began pulling him the other way. "Come on. Zazie never talks and I see Ku Fei over there with Nagase" she commanded, fighting against him as he made his way towards the silent girl.

"Hey, chill for a sek," he muttered, shaking loose of her. "I wanna ask Madam Rainyday something." He stuck his hand in his pocket and walked over, all while staring at the bit of make-up he could see on her face. Apparently hearing his footsteps, Zazie turned her head to look at the new student. A staring contest began between the two before Dom pulled out a small tube. Bending it quickly in his hand till is made a cracking sound and began to glow, he tossed it toward the girl who grabbed it in mid-air. Another one quickly followed, and Zazie held each of the glowsticks in a hand. Dom grinned as she raised one hand slightly and tossed the stick up in the air. The other soon followed, and in a couple of moments she was juggling the spinning tubes of light with ease. The twins oooo-ed and ahhhh-ed in amazement as Dom cracked another glowstick and tossed at Zazie, who caught it and threw it into the juggling circle. By now, a small but appreciative circle had formed around them as the young Frenchman threw another glowstick into the juggle.

"Ah, an interprète de lumière." he murmurs, before calling out "Hey! Someone hit the lights." Apparently, someone listened to him as within a a second the common room was plunged into 5 o'clock darkness. This was when the performance REALLY started. Though it was nearly impossible to tell what was really happening in the juggling with the light, it was quite obvious in the dark. The crowd grew even larger as glowsticks turned into orbs of green and purple light dancing through the air in a 3-dimensional figure 8 pattern.

"Vous êtes bon! (1)," Dom said, clapping appreciatively as the the silent acrobat collected the glowsticks and handed them back to him, a faint smile appearing on her lips as the lights were turned back on. The rest of the group joined in with the applause and Zazie gave a slight bow before returning to the window and bird. Some girls went back to were they were earlier, while others stayed in the general circle area. All had the same question on their minds, specifically, how the hell have we never seen her do that before?

"YOU THERE!" Ayaka yelled from right behind Dominique, scaring him so bad that he dropped the glowsticks he was holding. "HOW DID YOU KNOW ZAZIE COULD DO THAT!?!"

"I'm wondering myself," A dark-haired gunswoman ((Gunsman? Gunswoman? Which is it?)) added, "I'm been rooming with her for a while and I didn't know she could do that." Dom perked up at this.

"So you must be...."

"Mana Tatsumiya" she replied, giving a slight bow, "Nice to meet you."

"Pleasantries later, explanation NAO!" the class rep interrupted, still pointing at Dom, who finally managed to get all the glowsticks back into his pocket, which now was glowing considerably.

"Her face," He replied, standing back up and smiling slightly.

"Her face." Ayaka repeated.

"All right fine, specifically: her make-up." all the girls turned and stared at the acrobat in question, trying to discern any information from just looking at her make-up. After failing utterly, they turned and face Dom again, who by now was chuckling to himself.

"So you looked at her make-up, assumed she was a clown or something and started throwing things at her?" Ayaka asked, now getting thoroughly annoyed with the new student.

"Close, but no banana. The make-up is what some ravers wear back home. Combined with the clown outfit," he continued, " I assumed she could juggle. Juggler + Raver = interprète de lumière, a glowsticker." He looked around, "Speaking of bananas, I'm hungry." he said, before trundling off to the snack bar to grab some more food, and maybe another cup of punch. The other's just sort of stare at him.

"France is a weird place isn't it," Fuka said to her sister, who nodded.

"That it is Fuka, that it is..."


Meanwhile....

"AH HAH!! I COULD BUY AN AIRPLANE TICKET!" Clyde shouted triumphantly, pounding his fist on the desk. The servants waiting outside his room just sighed. There he goes again...


Back at Mahora...

"Shoot, I forgot something didn't I?" Dom mumbled to himself, hitting his forehead with his hand. "Now what was it..." He started wracking his brain, trying to figure out just what it was he was missing. "Buy bananas? Nooooo. Destroy ninjas? Noooo. Meet dormmates? Nooo-wait, yes!" The boy looked around, searching through the thinning crowd for the only room mate he hadn't met yet, Ku Fei.

"Dang. Ah well, we're gonna share the same room for a while. It's not like I'll never see her." Slipping through the crowd, Dom made his way down the hallway and stopped outside his dorm door. Grabbing the handle, he turned it, and using his newfound knowledge that Japanese doors open INWARDS, pushed foreword. Only to find that the door wouldn't open. Dammit. They locked it. He knocked on the door, since if it was unlocked when he put his stuff in earlier, they must have gone in and locked it. No answer. He knocked again. No answer. He was just about to knock again when:

"WHO'S THERE!" Ku Fei shouted as she kicked the door outward, knocking poor Dom down in the process. "Eh?" She looked down at the crumpled Frenchman. "Oops..."


French Translations

1: You're good


Author's Notes

Meh, another chapter. It's always annoyed me how little time Zazie get's in the manga. She say's a grand total of 8 words, and in the class photos that Ken draws sometimes, she's always waaaaaaaay in the background. So once again, read and most definately review!

...

No, seriously. Review. NAO.