The Magicians' Realm Chapter 56: Birds and Daffodils, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 56, everybody! In which birds fly in and daffodils honk and the little Starling lives again through story….Yes, Lil' Stevie was the name of the little Starling who lasted a week back in June. I still miss him.

Movie this week is AI: Artificial Intelligence, which surprised Mom as she recalled me not liking it. I thought it was maybe because she was confusing it with The Sixth Sense, which also starred Haley Joel Osment and which I immensely disliked, or maybe because I was young when I watched AI. Nope—disliked it now, too, which is a true pity because it had some really good cinematography. Saying that, the body horror, the subject matter, and the fact that the thing drags on—about halfway through the movie I started checking the time, and when I had to pause it to go do something, I saw there was still an hour left and squawked when is this thing going to end!? So not one of Spielberg's strongest works, sorry. ^^;

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Yes, bad Max, shame on you. Hey, she's learning! And yes, very cute. ^^

FicReader, thanks for the review! Ah, no worries. ^^ Yes, a point for Yami—and thank you! Now I'm not sure if it was intentional or not….Yes, yes, and yes—but unlike Kineil, who just wants this mess over with, Maxwell likes seeing things blow up. Yes, what an industrious little voodoo doll! But if he doesn't clean, what will he do?...

Guest who I am guessing is Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Ah, a pity….Yes, those are the best ones to try it out on. :D Yeah….Oh man, introducing Frost King Yami to hail—a little late to do that in the story itself, but I could definitely do a snippet or two and publish them separately. :D Ah…it's kind of good—learning is important!

References:

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

Yami gave her a week, refreshingly, before showing up on her sill in his Hagsfiend guise.

"Would you be open to accepting my apology for ruining your life now?" he asked upon Teana opening the window.

"I'll think about it," she said.

"Ouch," Yami noised, wincing—an odd expression on a bird, to be sure. "And with me listening to Kineil and waiting, too."

"I do appreciate that," Teana said. "And I've worked something out with my landlord, so there's that."

"Wonderful! So things are fixed."

"There is the small matter of you going behind my back to fix my problems."

"Ah, yeah…but you don't have to deal with that job anymore! And I was talking to Mitzi the other day, and she wouldn't mind hearing you sing and giving you a job if you're good, which I'm sure you are—"

"You're solving my problems again."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"It's irksome."

"Why?"

"That's irksome too."

"Again, why?"

She heaved a sigh. "Because I'm used to solving my own problems, and having someone else solve them for me is a little bothersome to me, okay?"

"Okay," Yami said, bobbing his bird head. "See? Don't you feel better now?"

She gave that some thought. "No, not really."

"Huh. Getting things off your chest is supposed to make you feel better."

"That should tell you something."

"I do feel as though I'm missing something."

"Go with that feeling. And while you're at it, go."

"Actually, I was hoping to take you to dinner."

"Is it someplace where you know people? And why are you jumping up and down like that?"

"I'm thrilled to death that you didn't automatically say no," Yami said, ceasing his bopping. "Anywho, I'm fairly certain I don't know anybody there—Gatsby's up at Norkyew. Heard of it?"

"That's an all-day trip."

"It'll be fun."

"I don't want to go on an all-day trip."

"Maybe later?"

"Maybe on a special occasion—like New Year's."

"Right. I need my calendar…."

"You're unbelievable."

"I try," Yami said, tipping his head. "All right then—where do you want to go?"

"I already have dinner plans."

"Really? What are they?"

"A peanut butter and jelly sandwich right here."

"That's a terrible dinner plan—that isn't even dinner. That's lunch."

"Are you questioning my logic?"

"No, just your eating habits."

She shoved him off the sill and closed the window.

He was back a few moments later, tapping on the window until she opened it again.

"You know, that's not how you win an argument," he pointed out.

"Oh, is that what we're doing now?"

"I think so, yes."

"Then let me make it easy for you: the woman always wins. There. You can go now."

"Wonderful!" Yami said. "So where do you want to eat dinner?"

"What did I just say?"

"I've acquiesced to not trying to correct your eating habits. What else—oh. And you're right about me not messing about with your employment, even though I'm sure that you and I and any random person you grab off the street would agree that the man was a louse."

"Are you done?"

Yami gave that some thought. "And I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to fix your problems behind your back. There. Now I'm done."

She sighed, rubbed her forehead before sitting down.

"I forgive you," she said finally. "But stop trying to make my life all roses, okay?"

"Why not?"

"I don't like roses."

"Oh. What flowers do you like then?"

"I have no idea, honestly."

Yami gave that some thought. "I think you might like daffodils. I do—especially the kind that grows behind my house. They have little googly eyes and they honk at you when you walk by."

"Those things were real? I thought I was drunk!"

"You were drunk."

"I mean I thought I was seeing things."

"You were—you were seeing little honking daffodils."

"Yami…."

Yami simply beamed at her, again an expression she wasn't sure of coming from a bird.

But she liked it, oddly enough.

*/*\*

Yami was reaching the end of the spellbook.

Yuki reflected that wasn't a good thing. Yami was always the sort to need constant distraction. If he didn't have that, he'd be banging his head against the wall, and that wasn't exactly conductive to anything. Unless, of course, you wanted to hurt your head—in which case it worked just fine.

In Yuki's case, banging his head against a wall was preferable to going to Hallowed Fields. At least with Yami and the spellbook, Yuki was learning something. And if he wanted to learn the next spell, he'd better hustle.

Yuki ran up the steps, darted to his room, deposited his backpack—

Something tapped on the window.

He looked up and smiled when he saw it was a bird—a little Starling, drab and common to most, but definitely a beautiful bird if viewed in the right light. He crossed over to the window and opened it.

"Hello," he greeted as it hopped in and onto the desk.

"Hello," it chimed back—male. "Are you Yuki Montgau?"

"Yeah—and what's your name?"

"I'm Lil' Stevie," the Starling said. "Mom said to tell you something."

Yuki was of the opinion that 'Lil' Stevie' was an odd name for a bird. "Why are you called Lil' Stevie?" he asked.

"That's what Mom named me."

Right. "Okay. Who's your mom? Do I know her?"

"Maybe. She said to tell you when you go in the attic again to look at the pictures some more."

Yuki blinked at that information. "Does your family have a nest in our dormers?"

"No. She says you'll find some interesting pictures up there if you look long enough."

"I already found some interesting pictures—Dad wore some weird clothes back then."

"Mom says these are from your mother's side."

Yuki blinked at that information. Mom's side of the family didn't really have a whole lot of photos…."What's your mom's name?"

Lil' Stevie looked away at a chirp. "I have to go," he said to Yuki, hopping out. "It was nice meeting you."

"Bye," Yuki said, sticking his head out the window to watch him go. The little Starling flew into the woods, between the boughs of the trees—

And Yuki saw a bit of blue light flash away.

Again, that moment when he had to blink in surprise. What could have caused that light, he wondered.

And why would a bird be telling him to look at pictures in a musty old attic?

*\*/*

The next night saw Teana reading in her bed, which was interrupted when there was a knocking at her door.

"Oh goodness me, how plebian," she noised out loud, glad she hadn't changed out of her day clothes yet. "It must be a Commoner coming to call."

She opened the door—had to crane her neck to look Yami Skellington in the face. He was currently slouching, and yet still had that wild hair brushing the ceiling.

"Comfortable?" she asked him.

"See, this is why I use the window," Yami said, looking uncomfortable.

"I can see that. For the record, this hall was made for people of normal height."

"I can see that."

"I see. And why are you using the hall? I thought you liked windows."

"I do—ask Skulduggery, he'll tell you that doors are for people with no imagination."

"Yes, well, I don't like that first step out the window. I also don't like the fact that you might make a scene here in the hall."

"Does that mean you'll invite me in?"

"No, it means I'll let you tell me why you're here and then usher you out with all haste."

"Cheers," he noised, before holding a hand up—alerting her to the fact that he had kept one hand hidden behind his back this whole time. "But as I noticed your apartment is lacking in foliage—for you."

And with that, he brought his hand forward, revealing a pot with a pair of daffodils in it. A pair of daffodils with googly eyes that honked at her when they saw her.

"Is that a smile I see?" Yami asked, grinning.

Teana didn't trust herself to answer—she was afraid a laugh would come out. "Maybe," she said finally. "Is…." Okay, talking was not in the foreseeable future—she had to press her free hand to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

"Oh wow, this is even better!" Yami said. "I'm going to plant a whole troupe of them out front then—I love seeing you laugh." His smile shifted to a bit of a grimace. "Of course, these daffodils are apparently opposed to being uprooted…I guess that's a thing."

The daffodils honked indignantly at him before returning their attention to Teana, who finally accepted the pot.

"Yes," Teana managed finally, putting a finger near the daffodils—they kind of snuffled at her finger when she did. "Not everyone appreciates being uprooted and having their life turned upside down."

"There's a metaphor there—I can sense it."

"Then you're not as dense as I first feared."

"Ouch."

She turned, put the pot on her windowsill, reflected that that didn't take as long as she would have liked.

"I had to have two in there," Yami continued. "They get lonely when they're by themselves."

She looked back at him, leaning on the doorframe and watching her with a smile on his face—not a mean smile, or any other adjective she could readily identify; maybe just happy to see her. Or maybe he was happy that he managed to turn her earlier mention of metaphors on her.

She sighed, bopped the daffodils lightly with her finger, looked down at her shoes by the bed. "I…suppose I could maybe go out to dinner."

"That's splendid," Yami said, sounding genuine. "Where would you like?"

"Did you ever find someplace local that your friends don't visit?"

"Eh…Café Snooty, but I don't go there either." Yami tapped his chin, giving it some thought as she pulled her shoes on. "Although I suppose we could order something to go somewhere and eat elsewhere."

She finished with her shoes, waved goodbye to the daffodils, and shoved Yami out of the doorframe as she grabbed her keys and pulled her door shut behind her. Not that she had anything of value to steal, but she had gotten into the habit of locking her door when she had come home one night to a vagrant sleeping on her floor.

"We'll think of something," Teana said, leading Yami down the hall and the stairs. "There isn't…really a Café Snooty, is there?"

Yami's expression told her he was finding her reactions to his friends less odd.

"There will be when Heph and Vul finish with the sign."