The Magicians' Realm Lunch and Dinner, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 40, everyone! In which the proper way of eating gummie worms is discussed and Kineil abducts Teana….And yes, fries and rings are the best measurers for how good a restaurant is. :)

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Mwahaha, yes! *in best Yzma voice* It's DINNER time! :D Yes, me too—fortunately, we're taking that important first step. Yes indeed! Probably not—and probably so….

FicReader, thanks for the review! Yes, it'll be more than just a trinket, don't worry. And oh yes—Yami Montgau isn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes it is—and if you notice, Yami's not complaining. Precisely! Probably—people riot when their football team wins the Super Bowl; can you imagine the insanity if it ended in anything but a stalemate? And yes, consistency is for other people (and salad dressing). It doesn't—you have to add it manually, except apparently for really, really common pop culture words, like kryptonite, Pokémon, and Pikachu. I guess it must just be weird Americans (or a newer copy of Microsoft Word). That's a pond, right? (only time I ever heard it was in the song "Waltzing Matilda"). Yes, Batman: the Animated Series and the 2000s series The Batman are good DC superhero shows to get into the next time you have time—now if only YouTube would quit taking them down….

References:

Burns and Allen © Your guess is as good as mine—sometime in the 1930s, hosted by CBS or NBC

Original characters + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

The next morning, Yami and Yuki sat on the sidewalk in front of the Cunningham's Rooster, the local diner and hangout. They had just bought a bag of gummie worms and were steadily working their way through them.

They both knew that there was a certain way to eating gummie worms. One had to suck on it first, on the least favorite flavor, until it began to pull apart. Then each segment had to be carefully bitten off, one by one, thus maximizing the length each worm lasted. It was a good system.

"I wonder," Yuki pondered. "If you went fishing with gummie worms, would you catch Swedish fish?"

"Maybe," Yami said, taking another worm. They each were keeping careful track of how many the other took. "Why don't you take yours and find out?"

Yuki scowled and dropped the notion for another, more pressing one. "So what are we doing today?"

In response, Yami pulled out a scrap of paper. On the paper was a list copied out from the attic spellbook—ingredients.

"Let's see," Yami said, perusing the list. "Spent wishbones, dandelions in flight, a feather from a guinea on the run…."

"Hmm," Yuki pondered, nibbling another worm. "Kels has guineas, right?"

"Yeah," Yami responded, as the door opened.

The Cunningham's Rooster was owned by the Cunningham family, with patriarch Howard, his wife Marion, and their three children, the youngest of which was Yuki's age. The five of them worked the diner and—with the exception of Marion, who was too giving for her own good—ran a fairly tight ship.

Marion was demonstrating her givingness now.

"I noticed you boys out here," she said, depositing a picnic basket next to Yami. "And I said to myself 'those boys don't eat enough healthy foods.'"

This wasn't true, but no one ever corrected Marion. She was much too nice for that.

"There's some tuna sandwiches and carrots and a few pints of milk in there," Marion continued. "And a few of my oatmeal cookies as well."

"Thanks, Mrs. Cunningham," Yami said politely. Yuki seconded it.

"Now you boys run along now," Marion said, patting them both on the heads. "Boys your age shouldn't be sitting around like this—it's unhealthy."

They agreed, thanked her again, and went on their way.

"So where to?" Yuki asked.

"You just said where," Yami replied. "To Kels'."

*\*/*

Teana was used to the cheery little ding the bell at the bookkeeper's made.

So when it was immediately accompanied by a loud slam, she looked up in alarm.

There was Kineil, and there was the door against the wall.

"You," Kineil said, pointing at her. "You're coming with me."

Teana wondered if she'd make it to the poker before Kineil made it to her. "No I'm not," she declared primly, standing.

Kineil stood in the doorway, hands on her hips, and glared. Teana winced at a sudden pain in her gut.

"Yes you are," Kineil said. "Because the next step my glare usually causes is nausea followed by lunch-losing, and you don't want that."

Despite the pain, Teana couldn't help but stare. "You're doing this by looking at me?"

"Behold the Hawk's-Eye—a predator gaze that freezes its prey."

"I'm sorry, I'm prey now?"

"You wouldn't come when I asked nicely."

"You didn't ask nicely!"

"Do you want to see your lunch again?"

"Not really."

"Then I suggest you come with me."

"I suggest you ask nicely."

"Are you always this difficult?"

"Only with Magicians."

"I thought we established that I'm not a Magician."

Mordecai Heller walked in with the obvious intention of starting his shift, spotted the current issue, and stopped. "Ah…."

"Mordecai, give me a hand here," Kineil said.

"I'm not getting into this," he replied, punching in his time card. "Now if you'll excuse me." He crossed over to Teana. "You're in my spot."

"I'm trying to avoid an untenable situation," Teana informed him. "You don't happen to have a mirror, do you?"

"You may as well go with it. I heard the plan earlier."

"There was a plan?"

"It's a good plan. It even had the tiny fiddly details worked out too. I suppose the only flaw was in sending Kineil here instead of Ms. Idgy."

"I drew the short straw," Kineil said.

"You do recall that you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."

"I'm a fly now?" Teana asked.

"Do you take your own advice?" Kineil asked. "If so, I'm sure there's a few people up in Jois-Outside-of-Norkyew who feel they've been robbed of that service."

"That is how one reasons with those ruffians. Now out of my chair," he added to Teana.

"Does it have your name on it?" Teana asked.

"Not officially, but I'll have you know that my shift starts at four. And if you'd kindly look at the clock on the wall, you'll note that the long hand is on twelve and the short hand is on four. It is four o' clock. Now, enlighten me as to what that means."

"Burns and Allen is on?" Kineil guessed.

"Out. The both of you. Now."

Teana obliged, simply because there was something about Mordecai that was worrisome.

"All right," Teana sighed, once they were out. "What can I say to talk you out of killing me?"

"You can say," Kineil said, thinking. "That you'd love to come to dinner."

"Do what?"

"You heard me. Now march. You run, I reserve the right to break your kneecaps."

"That sounds an awful lot like vinegar."

"I'm full of it. Now come along—we've got a little walking to do."

"How much walking?"

Kineil came up behind Teana and started pushing her down the street. "We're going down to the river. There, happy?"

"No. Are you planning on drowning me?"

"Trust me, of all the scenarios I've run through my head, drowning was dismissed as being too much trouble. Now come on—the place has the best French fries and onion rings around."

"Sounds high class."

"Do not mock the fries and rings—you can tell a lot about a place by the quality of their fries and rings. Now let's see some hustle!"