XXX
Story: [The Ashikabi of Death]
Summary: Life is weird, and people are weirder. But Shiina was a bit too polite to call them out on it, and his Ashikabi was too practical to bother much with complaints. So what if they shared a too-small apartment with a raving lunatic? At least they had pizza.
Crossover: (Harry Potter) / (Sekirei)
Genre: Humor, Romance
XXX
Shiina shifted his weight, still probably a bit too aware of his Ashikabi's presence next to him.
He was warm. Even when he was sleeping, curled up on the couch like he had, he was still radiating heat. His breath making a weak almost-silent whine as it passed through his lips. The lips that Shiina had kissed.
He really hadn't expected his Ashikabi to be male.
Then again, that was what life was like. It was impossible to tell what would happen before it happened.
Personally, Shiina was more concerned about his Ashikabi's age than the boy's gender. He didn't look older than ten – and that was accounting for him being small for his age – and now Shiina had dragged him into the Sekirei Plan by reacting to him, by convincing the boy to Wing him.
He didn't feel good about that at all, even as his lips still seemed to tingle from where they'd been pressed against his Ashikabi's own.
However, he wasn't being allowed to stew in his own misery.
"So cute~..." A gleefully ecstatic murmur came from their current host, the girl who'd invited them into her apartment because they'd 'looked too adorable to leave alone' – and some slightly more peculiar reasons, but Shiina was practicing selective ignorance in this case. "The comfortable sleepiness, the shyness, the fidgeting, the obliviousness...!" The girl started digging through her pile of mangas with a wide grin.
Shiina sincerely considered waking his Ashikabi up and then running for the hills. Or just skipping the 'waking up' part, and go straight for leaping through the nearest available window carrying him in his arms. He could do it too, with his powers, he should be able to simply dissolve the window without creating any shards that would end up hurting his Ashikabi, and there was a window right there, ready to be leapt through at a moment's notice.
But that would be rude.
There was a muffled giggle from the girl. "I knew it! I knew I'd seen this scene before!" She exclaimed silently, whipping out a particular manga. "Look, see! This is what you're supposed to do next!"
Shiina felt his eye twitch at the picture of a boy leaning in to kiss another whose head rested on their shoulder. That would've been terribly inappropriate. You weren't supposed to kiss people if they weren't awake to tell you that doing so was a good thing. Surely this wasn't something that people did? Or was it, and nobody had seen fit to inform him of this previously? Was this the social norms? Did his Ashikabi expect him to kiss him in his sleep?
No, wait. He couldn't start doubting himself so quickly. That way lay madness. He didn't know his Ashikabi nearly enough to make an informed decision on the matter, and even if he did kiss him, he'd end up performing a Norito, and that wouldn't exactly follow the romantic-seeming 'precious stolen moment' that the manga in front of him had going for it. He'd just end up waking him up, and that wasn't good at all, because he must've been absolutely exhausted, and-... Shiina paused.
Since when was he in any serious way honestly consider taking advice from the perversely giggling girl with her nose in Boy's Love manga? Didn't he have any integrity at all!?
"Look look, then you can do this." The girl gleefully continued, and turned the page, unaware of the moral crisis the Sekirei was suffering.
Shiina felt his eyes widen as blood rushed to his face at the sight of so much-... so much nudity!
Feeling a bit like a cornered animal, Shiina frantically shook his head in denial, because that was-...! He wasn't actually entirely sure what that was, but it was... something! And entirely too much of it!
The girl suddenly paused, frowning. "No, wait. You shouldn't do that. He's too young for that." She shot him a warning look. "You better not be thinking about doing it." When Shiina frantically shook his head again, she nodded slowly, still staring at him with sharp eyes. "I'm watching you mister Sekirei."
Shiina felt a bit like crying. What had he ever done to deserve this?
XXX
Yukari had been having a perfectly ordinary day, so when she'd caught the tail-end of what looked like a running magical battle, she'd been quite enthusiastic.
Maybe she'd finally found the moment when she could make use of all of her very useful genre-savviness in regards to magical girl's manga. She'd always known that reading manga instead of paying attention during classes had been a good idea.
Two girls in scandalous clothing, going after a cute boy that looked a bit younger than her, throwing lighting bolts all over the place. And then the cute boy had been rescued by an even younger boy throwing a garbage lid in front of one of the lightning bolts.
Yukari felt the briefest twinge of jealousy at seeing another person come so heroically to the rescue, but it was quickly overruled by the glee of actually being allowed to see said heroic action. It was really good! Way better than manga!
Which was when the genre – which she'd originally interpreted as 'mahou shoujo' – seemed to take a decisive turn away from the more classical 'shounen' of heroic rescues and daring fights, and begin teetering heavily towards the 'shounen ai' sub-genre.
It wasn't as if the male heroes of shounen mangas generally gained their super-powers by kissing each other after all.
In fact, she couldn't quite out-of-hand remember any manga where that particular thing had been included in a homosexual couple, but it was probably only a matter of time, since their society and culture was really making leaps ahead in these kinds of things, and proper super-power-providing kisses would be available for couples of all genders.
Regardless of what genre or sub-genre they were following though, with the evil duo scared off by the Awesome Power of Love, it left only the adorable couple who'd apparently never met before – a Mysterious Stranger sub-trope, always nice to have an interesting twists on some of the classics – alone in the alley. The alley which was apparently where the younger boy had been trying to sleep.
It'd taken her a moment to realize the implications of that, the implications of the fact that the hero of the story was apparently a homeless kid. And by then, it'd seemingly become clear to both of the boys that neither of them had any money on them, or a way to find a safe place to sleep.
So, like any self-respecting person – who didn't want to be excluded from the Plot – Yukari had chosen that moment to step in and offer her own apartment's couch for the night.
It'd made both of them glare at her in suspicion for a long moment, whilst she tried to explain that she really didn't have any ulterior motives at all, honest.
Of course, they hadn't believed her. And finally her defenses had been broken through. "Fine! I need you to crash at my place! If the heroic couple doesn't stick around, how will I get included in the Plot?! What if I'm shunted off as an extra?! I refuse to allow it! I won't stand for it! I will take part of the Plot! Even if I have to use underhanded means, like becoming the benevolent landlady!" She exclaimed, waving her arms widely around to express her feelings on the matter.
Which had caused the younger of the two boy to start snickering too hard to continue being skeptical.
It wasn't until they'd arrived at her place, eaten a bit, and then crashed on her couch, that Yukari realized that she'd forgotten to ask for their names.
She'd been momentarily torn, before realizing that this would give her the opportunity to perhaps reclaim a bit of her 'mysterious coolness-factor' by introducing herself all casual-like in the morning.
Yes, she was going to absolutely rock this story.
XXX
Harry had never expected the consequences of trying to defend the pretty boy.
He'd been left behind by the Dursleys, in a way so deliberate that it seemed to have been methodologically planned for a long time, and he'd spent the last few days digging through garbage cans for food. He wasn't exactly proud of that, but it wasn't as if he had any money, or knew the language enough to explain his situation to anyone.
The idea of helping the older boy-... It had been an almost instinctive decision, stemming from a mixture of annoyance at having his sleeping-place invaded and some kind of glimmer of lingering do-good-ness that apparently hadn't withered and died completely under either the 'caring' hands of his relatives or the much more honest misery of the streets of Japan.
Then there had been that kiss, which had been weird, followed by wings unfolding behind the pretty boy, the lightning-duo taking off running, and then a strange girl who seemed far too enthusiastic about everything invited them to stay the night at her apartment.
Harry only knew of what she'd been talking about because Shiina had been nice enough to translate it, even if the other boy's English was awkward at best.
Really though, the more he learned about their gracious host and her very strange attitude towards life, the more he was coming to the somewhat-unsettling conclusion that she was nuts. Completely and utterly nuts.
Which was kind of a really rude thing to say, and most definitely not something you mentioned to the random person who was willing to feed and provide shelter for you. It wasn't as if the girl had any real reason not to toss the both of them out on their nose, so it was better not to tempt fate.
And now Shiina was trying to teach him the language, and the girl – Yukari – was gushing on about something or the other. Harry wondered if he should pay more attention to the lessons, to the crazy girl, or to the weird way that Shiina would blush whenever their eyes met.
Apparently he was an Ashikabi now, and Shiina was his Sekirei. But Harry didn't know what that meant, or why exactly it seemed to involve kissing. And were boys even allowed to kiss? He had a vague memory of his uncle being very much against such a thing, but he probably hadn't been paying enough attention to it.
Then again, since when had his uncle had a sensible opinion on anything at all? Ever?
So Harry mostly shrugged that confusion off and tried to concentrate on the words.
Unfortunately, it seemed that his eyes would always end up staring at the boy's lips as he talked, causing the words to become a sort of background fuzz. And they looked really really soft, and it made it kind of hard to concentrate properly.
So whenever their eyes met, Harry felt his face heat up a little, knowing that he'd probably missed something that he hadn't been paying attention to, or that his inattention had been discovered.
Strangely, Shiina never seemed annoyed by it, and Harry had after the first few times simply given up on trying to figure out why.
XXX
Yukari shook her head. They were completely oblivious to the fact that they were both staring at each other's lips with enough intensity that they might catch fire, weren't they?
It was kind of adorable, the way they'd suddenly startle out of that stare and their eyes would end up meeting, and then they'd both try to pretend as if they hadn't been staring, and both looking mightily unsure when the other person didn't mention it in any way.
Then there was how Shiina's attempts with teaching were muddled at best, often slipping in between Japanese and English in unpredictable ways, and sometimes disappearing off on a tangent that just proved how very little attention the pretty boy was paying to what was actually coming out of his own mouth.
It'd be hilarious if it wasn't just adorable enough that she wanted to hug the both of them to death.
In the end however, Yukari couldn't allow the utter farce of a teaching method continue on like it had. The boy would never pick up the language like that, and then Harry would never be able to say any of the really cool one-liners that all heroes ought to say.
So, with a sigh of great personal sacrifice at the thought of interrupting their adorably awkward moment, Yukari shouldered Shiina out of the way and started to actually teach.
The things she didn't do in order to be part of the Plot.
XXX
Minato stared.
His little sister had adopted an Ashikabi and Sekirei couple? She'd invited them into her own apartment after realizing that they didn't have a place to stay? And wait, weren't both of those male? And the Ashikabi was definitely a foreigner, and underage.
Carefully suppressing the sudden urge to drag his little sister off to make sure that she understood the potential legal ramifications of abducting children – because with Kusano being present, that kind of confrontation might get unpleasantly tossed right back in his face – Minato tried to focus on something other than wondering if his little sister had been dropped on the head as a child.
Instead he turned his attention towards the young Ashikabi and his Sekirei, and found himself confronted with the slightly uncomfortable realization that they were both bashfully sneaking glances at each other, even as they seemed to slightly lean towards each other as if they were subconsciously inching their way closer.
Minato blinked stupidly at the scene.
Even if they were both male, even if the Ashikabi was probably far too young – despite the Sekirei's relative youth – even if the sight of it all made him a bit uncomfortable. They were definitely a couple. New, inexperienced, awkward, shy, innocent, and generally unaware of it, but most definitely a couple.
So male Sekirei could fall in love with males. Huh. There was something new to learn every day. Though Minato had to admit to a certain degree of confusion with how that worked, considering how he was fairly sure that Sekirei had arrived on their planet for the sake of 'having kids'...
In the end however, he mostly shrugged it off, deciding that it wasn't really any of his business. Much more important was the dangerous fact that his little sister seemed to have gotten it into her head that he was some kind of 'harem lead'.
Apparently it was triggering some kind of mental crisis from the girl about Harry and Shiina being 'the token gay couple in a harem story', and how that was somehow related to her being 'the landlady to a side-character'.
Hopefully he'd be able to stop her from realizing that – if he followed her logic – she was technically also the little sister of the main harem lead, meaning that she could basically drop by whenever and still get 'screen-time'. He really didn't need his little sister making any more appearances than absolutely necessary. She'd probably report the whole mess right back to their mother, no questions asked. And he got the feeling that Takami wouldn't exactly approve of her son getting involved with a bunch of women, when he really should be studying for the entrance exams.
XXX
Harry wasn't sure what to say about Izumo Inn, other than that by the time they'd finally stumbled across the place that would've taken them in, they'd already kind of gotten used to the various quirks of living with Yukari.
Sure, she could be weird, and had a tendency to rant about a whole number of things – quite a number of which was that they should definitely be more enthusiastic about participating in the Sekirei Plan than they were – but it'd become a sort of home to them.
In fact, it was probably the first place Harry had ever thought of as 'home' – enthusiastically raving manga-fanatic and all.
Shiina didn't seem inclined to move out either, and they were both quite comfortable curling up on the couch that had been semi-converted into a proper bed over the last week.
By the time Miya had given them the invitation of living under her roof, it felt like too much of a hassle to accept it. And besides that, Yukari was far more inclined to ordering pizza than the traditional woman.
And pizza was awesome.
XXX
Harry opened his eyes to the dark room, listening to the steady beat of his Sekirei's heart, not entirely sure why he decided to stay awake rather than go back to sleep.
After a long moment of staring at the dark wall, Harry lifted his head from the other boy's chest, twisting a bit in his arms to be able to actually watch the Sekirei's sleeping face.
It really was dark, Harry mused, barely able to see more than an outline despite their proximity.
Shifting his weight again, Harry reached up to trace a finger along the boy's face. Silently marveling at the tingling warmth, and how very soft his skin felt, Harry continued to watch the boy sleep.
It was rare to see the Sekirei look so relaxed. Normally, he would be fidgeting for one reason or the other – usually due to something that Yukari said, but sometimes for seemingly no reason at all – a kind of tension in his face that never truly went away. He looked happy though, just... rarely relaxed.
Shiina made the tiniest noise, shifting to lean into the palm that had somehow ended up cupping the boy's cheek, and Harry felt his face heat. He shouldn't really be touching the other boy so easily, even if they'd both long since grown used to sharing the couch like this, huddling together for warmth in each other's arms.
But-...
Shiina made that noise again, barely louder than the gentle rise and fall of his breathing, but somehow enough to make Harry's stomach fill with butterflies. He really was pretty, and his lips looked so soft-...
But he was asleep, and kissing him on the lips would activate the Norito, and then he'd wake up, and his face would go all tense and fidgety again, and-...
Harry shifted closer.
It'd be fine as long as he didn't kiss him on the lips, right?
He had to stretch a bit, and his position shifted awkwardly as he tried to avoid putting too much weight on the boy he was lying almost entirely on top of, but in the end his lips brushed against the other boy's cheek.
His skin was soft, and Harry's lips were probably a bit chapped, and he felt more than heard as Shiina's breath brushed against his own throat in a soft noise of content.
Face so hot it felt as if it would catch on fire, Harry very awkwardly tried to shift back to their previous positions, wanting to escape from the sudden influx of barely-comprehensible feelings by going to sleep.
Closing his eyes, determined to fall asleep again as quickly as possible, Harry still felt something missing. Something that he should do, a slight shift in position that was needed.
It took him a moment to realize what it was, and then he blushed all the heavier.
His voice was barely a whisper, barely more than forming the words without any sound at all, but it was there, and that was all that mattered. "I love you, Shiina."
Then, still blushing, Harry fell asleep.
Leaving a certain Sekirei with unusually acute hearing, staring up at the ceiling, his heart thudding loudly in his ears.
It would take him several hours to join his Ashikabi in sleep. It would take even longer than that for his smile to fade.
XXX
XXX
[Time Passes]
XXX
Yukari had reacted predictably weird.
Harry wasn't entirely sure why she'd been talking about 'spin-off series taking place in entirely different situations and why they suck', but he expected that he'd have to listen to a very in-depth explanation on the matter, sooner or later. Though he could probably make an educated guess on the matter, given the context.
A letter, declaring that magic existed, and inviting him to a British school called 'Hogwarts', because he was a wizard.
Nobody had much of an idea of what it all meant, but if Yukari's logic was to be followed, Harry assumed that she was still thinking of the whole Sekirei Plan as 'Minato's harem story' – which actually wasn't very far-fetched considering how central he'd been in dismantling the whole thing. Thus, Harry and Shiina were side-characters of little importance to the plot – but still favorites amongst the fanbase, according to Yukari, since fans could sometimes be predictably unpredictable about which characters they fell in love with.
And now – with the letter proving him to a be a wizard on top of being an Ashikabi, inviting him off to a foreign country in order to participate in whatever magical adventures awaited him – he couldn't be classified as the 'side-character', but had instead evolved into full-blown protagonist.
Thus, Harry was going to have a spin-off series, where he had to deal with a secret society and magic, and possibly discover various anecdotes about his past.
To Yukari, who had – despite her 'genre-savvy' claims to the contrary – more or less adopted the two of them, this assumed 'spin-off' going so far as to deliberately excluding her from the story was something of a personal affront.
Thankfully, they'd managed to wrestle her into submission before she tried writing a return-letter to the school in order to complain about it. None of them wanted to know how wizards and witches reacted to normal people being rude to them. They suspected that it could turn pretty nasty a bit too quickly for anyone's comfort.
The problem that Harry was facing was a combination of 'to accept or not to accept' and 'what about Shiina?'.
The latter of which had been why he'd ended up trying to comfort his Sekirei, who'd been understandably distraught at the thought of his Ashikabi leaving him behind. And that's why he was currently very much not paying any attention at all to Yukari who was hidden badly behind a half-closed door. Or her camera.
Trying to get her to stop would just get Shiina upset again.
So, with a sigh that was probably a bit too much fondly exasperated to be annoyed, Harry continued comb through his Sekirei's hair with his fingers.
It'd always kind of fascinated him how his hair could be so pale as to be almost white, despite the boy being barely older than himself. And the small content sighs that would slip out of Shiina's lips every now and then were more than enough motivation to continue.
Smiling down at the larger boy who'd more or less completely curled up in his arms, Harry wondered if there was some way that he could take his Sekirei with him to the – rather bizarrely insistent, considering the sheer amount of letters – school.
Hadn't the letter said something about being allowed to bring a pet? Like a bird? Sekirei weren't actually wagtails, but... they had wings?
Titling his head slightly, Harry pressed his lips to the boy's ear.
It wasn't until he heard the hastily-muffled squeal from behind him, that Harry reminded that they had an audience.
His blush was even deeper than Shiina's.
But his Sekirei was smiling, so Harry didn't regret it.
XXX
Shiina hadn't been sure whether to be pleased or offended when his Ashikabi had suggested the 'pet bird'-plan.
On the one hand, if they managed it, it would mean that he wouldn't get left behind. On the other hand, it included forcefully insisting on likely numerous occasions that he was a 'pet bird', which wasn't exactly ideal.
Yukari had been entertained enough to go digging her way through various more risque manga upon hearing of it, and had spent most of a day trying to poke Shiina into calling Harry 'master'; Homura had looked offended on his behalf; Minato had clearly been repeatedly forcing his mind out of the gutter; Matsu, Kazehana, and Uzume had been snickering too hard about it to really react one way or the other; Musubi had had no idea what they were talking about at all; Tsukiumi had been utterly scandalized, and had been caught wandering around in a mixture of mortification, embarrassment, anger, and some weird and vaguely disturbing touch of jealousy; and Miya had smiled and carefully ushered Kusano out of the room before unleashing the demon-mask on the whole lot of them.
Shiina wasn't exactly sure if he was happy or indignant that Harry's common sense had been regarded as questionable, but he could sort of see where they were coming from. On the other hand, this seemed like the only way to actually allow him to follow his Ashikabi to this overly-insistent magical school.
Which was why he'd helped Harry with the implementation. Namely, in making sure that Shiina both had identification papers declaring him as a species of 'bird', and in writing a letter to the school in question in order to have written proof of Harry being allowed to bring 'a special kind of bird', rather than merely an owl.
It was both embarrassing and amusingly endearing to see Harry write down things like him being 'really smart' and 'kind of big' in a disturbingly accurate display of childish writing. Though, the impact was somewhat lessened once he'd realized that he'd been asking for 'writing pointers' from Kusano. After that, it was mostly embarrassing.
Takami had also been fairly accommodating on the 'fake ID' part of the equation, declaring with a shrug that MBI had actually classified the whole lot of them under 'species of bird' when referring to their existence from a legal standing. Meaning that the Sekirei species already had all the papers they needed for them to be easily classified as birds, making it a lot less tiresome than giving them proper 'human' papers.
There'd been some back-and-forth between Takami and Minato's flock as everyone wanted to know the exact details of it, but it seemed as if it was going to take a year or so to finalize pushing through giving each of the Sekirei a human ID anyway. And delaying Shiina's own papers for a bit in order to temporarily classify him as 'a bird' wouldn't be much of an issue.
XXX
Snape sneered at the letter.
He'd expected the attention-seeking brat to try something, and here was proof of his ability to predict the future. Of course the last Potter would want to bring something as pathetically showy as an unusual bird to Hogwarts.
Not that it really mattered, one way or the other. So Snape carefully handed the letter back to the headmaster whose eyes were twinkling brightly. Apparently, the man was overjoyed to hear that his precious Boy-Who-Lived was an animal friend, or something.
Snape scoffed at the thought, and turned on his heel to march straight back out of the office.
XXX
Shopping in Diagon Alley had been a headache-and-a-half.
First had been the bizarre method of entry, then there'd been the even more bizarre currency, not to mention the bank itself, or the shops, or the fact that Shiina had nearly reflexively attacked someone when they'd more or less jumped his Ashikabi for a handshake.
It'd been strange to realize that his Ashikabi was somehow a celebrity in the magical world, and after the second time he'd nearly been completely swarmed by well-wishers, it'd become downright panicky to try to keep away from them.
Upon realizing that it was the scar by which Harry kept being recognized, Shiina had found him a hat, causing the calamity of it all to calm down to something more closely resembling everyday chaos.
Then there'd been the list, which had been odd, and included odd things, and had Shiina mentioned that the shops were weird? Because they were.
But that trial was over and done with, and now there was only the rest of it to deal with. Or at the very least, problem number two on their list.
Platform 9 ¾.
Who even named these things? Shiina wondered to himself as they glanced around the busy King's Cross platform, trying to find any sign of a platform placed between the ninth and tenth.
Yukari and the rest were still back in Japan, either unable or unwilling – depending on who was asked – to travel halfway across the world when they could simply say their goodbyes at the Shin Tokyo airport like normal people. Which meant that there was only Harry and Shiina, and unfortunately they were having little to no luck in trying to figure out their 'ticket'.
Thankfully for their future sanity, a whole group of redheads entered the platform, loudly catching the two boys' attention with random tidbits and a most definite mentioning of that very peculiar number.
Exchanging glances with his Ashikabi, Shiina and Harry hurried that way.
XXX
"Two of each." Harry responded to the trolley-lady.
Shiina briefly considered pointing out how probably-unhealthy ordering a mountain worth of sweets was, but... this was the first time his Ashikabi had ever really had money, and he'd always been a little bit too fond of junk food. Combine that with the curiosity of magical candy, and Shiina knew he would've lost the argument before even opening his mouth.
Instead he sighed, and joined in the taste-experiments that were sure to follow.
They went through three 'beans' before their general degree of confusion turned to disgust and Shiina was left hacking on the floor of their compartment.
Apparently, they hadn't been exaggerating when they said they included 'every taste'. Though why in the world anyone would've ever even considered to combine soap and ketchup into a single mix wasn't something that Shiina truly even wanted to contemplate – since doing so would probably be detrimental for his future mental health.
Deciding to forgo the madness that were the 'beans' they turned their attention to things that made more sense.
This time it was Harry who was the unfortunate victim, leaving the boy to scrape off the taste of what was apparently a candy made out of actual cockroaches from his tongue.
After that, their approach to the candies were a mixture of wary horror and paranoid suspicions.
So when the chocolate frog moved Shiina reacted by instantly blasting it with his Sekirei powers, dissolving it completely. Except, it really had been purely chocolate, just enchanted to move somehow. And Shiina suffered a minor hysterical breakdown because why would they do that?
XXX
Hermione knocked on the door, hoping that this compartment would be filled with more willingly helpful people than the last one.
Opening the door slightly when she didn't hear any objections, Hermione glanced inside.
An older boy, and a younger boy. With the younger sitting in the older one's lap, and holding his head to his chest in a very comfortable-looking way, his free hand petting the older boy's almost-white hair.
Blushing, embarrassed to have interrupted-... whatever was happening between the two boys, Hermione nonetheless took a steadying breath. She was on a mission after all. "Have you seen a toad? Neville has lost his."
The older boy shuddered, making a weird noise, and the younger one looked up at her with a slight wince. "Umm... I don't think so?"
"Oh." She breathed out in disappointment, about to leave when her curiosity got the better of her. "Is he alright?"
The younger – and black-haired – boy made a conflicted face, looking as if he wasn't sure whether to be amused or guilty. "The candy didn't agree with him."
The older boy made a miserable noise, burrowing his head deeper into the younger boy's chest. Though it didn't hide the fact that his ears were turning red.
Hermione frowned in concern. "Do you need any help?"
The boy – that was probably about her age, now that she thought about it – paused in the middle of shaking his head, suddenly thoughtful. "Have you seen a garbage can somewhere? We bought quite a bit of it, and I don't think I want to eat it anymore."
There was another noise from the older boy, this one perfectly articulating a fascinating degree of disgust, despite its muffled nature.
Hermione tried to recall, but had to shake her head. "I don't think I've seen any, actually. Which is weird, you'd think they'd have them somewhere easily accessible."
Still feeling like an intruder, despite the apparent amicable attitude of the black-haired boy, Hermione beat a hasty retreat after that.
She had a toad to find.
XXX
Out of all of them, Minerva was the first to figure it out.
In Hagrid's defense though, he hadn't really been paying too much attention to how tall or how not-tall the First Years were – everyone was puny in comparison to him, so he'd almost entirely stopped noticing it over the years.
And after him, Minerva was the first one to see the group of First Years, so it stood to reason that she would be the first one to discover it.
However, the truly impressive part was the fact that instead of responding with confusion, she'd merely sighed. "I trust that this is your 'pet bird', Mr Potter?" She asked, frowning down at the boy who was probably going to be at least as much trouble as his father had been – not even James had managed to pull something like this before his Sorting.
Harry beamed up at her, in contrast to the 'bird' who visibly shrank away. "Yes. We have the papers and everything."
Minerva nodded, having expected as much from what had in hindsight been a rather elaborate and clever way of manipulating the school rules. She sincerely doubted that the mind capable of coming up with that, wouldn't make sure to find a way to back up the 'birds' claim of being a 'bird'.
The students around them though, were staring with a mixture of awe and horror at the boy grinning cheerfully up at her.
Holding out a hand for the papers, she couldn't help but wonder how authentically the boy had managed to fake the official papers. She expected something on a level above crayons and finger-painting, but she wasn't sure how far above it.
Except-...
Pausing, Minerva frowned at the papers.
Except... these didn't seem faked at all.
A brief and discrete wave of her wand also proved that they showed no sign of tampering as far as magic could detect. And magic could generally detect quite a bit indeed.
Feeling as if she was grasping at straws, Minerva desperately tried to find something inside of the papers to properly discredit this farce before it got started. "Mr Potter... what is a 'Sekirei'?"
The boy blinked innocently up at her. "Well, translated from Japanese, it's something like a wagtail. But Sekirei are Sekirei, and kind of probably more like cousins of those." He explained, somehow managing to quote the description of the 'Sekirei-species genealogy', without sounding like he was reading it at all.
Not entirely sure whether to laugh or cry, Minerva was reluctantly forced to surrender.
Handing the perfectly official papers back to the boy, Minerva took a deep steadying breath and forcefully ignored the entire situation.
She wasn't paid nearly enough to care about this.
XXX
Albus was really lucky that he hadn't been eating anything when he realized it, for if he had he would've choked on it, and such a thing could end rather severely for someone of his age. Why, he might've even been briefly confined to the Hospital Wing before magic fixed him up good as new.
No, instead he'd just forgotten to breathe for a probably-unhealthy amount of time.
The white-haired boy wasn't a student, he was too old. But he was there for some inexplicable reason. And he was standing right next to the Boy-Who-Lived. The very same boy who'd in fact inquired about the rules of bringing a 'pet bird' whose species and appearance and general characteristics he'd in hindsight been rather sparse with.
It wasn't a huge leap to the conclusion that he'd been had.
This boy, this wonderfully obnoxiously frustrating boy, had done something wizards three times his age would've given their wand-arms to be able to pull off.
And he'd done it for the sake of bringing his friend with him to school.
It was somewhat heart-warming to see, though it did beg the question of why in the world Minerva seemed to be so perfectly willing to ignore the other boy's presence. Normally the Deputy Headmistress wouldn't have been willing to simply let a prank like this go uncontested, especially not when it could disturb something as traditional as the Sorting Feast.
He caught the glimpse of something white in the older boy's hand, and found himself nodding in understanding.
Papers. Either enchanted to the point where it could manage to confound even Minerva, or official-seeming enough that she was washing her hands of the whole thing. Of course the boy would be able to plan at least far enough ahead to include some kind of 'proof' for his friend being his 'pet bird'.
No, what really tickled his curiosity was the question of how Harry could've gained access to someone both willing and capable of enchanting the papers to override even Minerva's notoriously suspicious personality.
XXX
Fred and George had both expected something interesting when they'd heard the Boy-Who-Lived's name being read out by McGonagall.
They most certainly hadn't been disappointed.
Ignoring that Gryffindor had managed to snag the celebrity of their generation, the First Year had left most of the Great Hall staring agape at him after the boy had dragged an older boy with him to the Gryffindor table. An older boy dressed in muggle-clothing.
And nobody had objected.
So, the moment the Sorting was over and answers could be demanded, Fred and George threw themselves into questioning their new First Year, because this story had to be good.
They weren't disappointed.
"He's my pet bird, obviously." Harry explained bluntly. "I have the papers for it and everything."
Exchanging glances, the twins came to an agreed upon realization.
This year was going to be fun.
XXX
Ron could admit to not having paid as much attention as he probably should've to the Boy-Who-Lived. In his defense though, there wasn't a lot that really seemed worth paying attention to.
Everywhere he went, his 'pet bird' Shiina followed him. The two boys had a tendency to be oddly close to one another, and Harry had apparently been conditioned to fall asleep on couches. Beyond that, he was an average student, slightly distant in trying to make friends, and with a tendency to write letters home a bit more often than was probably normal.
With Harry's strange 'conditioning' this meant that Shiina had carried the smaller boy to their shared bed – Shiina had an extra blanket, but they were apparently comfortable with sharing otherwise – after he'd fallen asleep on the couch more than once. It also meant that there was usually an open spot for Harry and his 'pet bird' to sleep together on the couch, as more than once Shiina had fallen asleep too before he'd managed to carry the other boy to bed.
It was... weird.
Not just with how comfortable they could both seem with Harry damn-near sitting in the other boy's lap, or with how insistent they were in classifying Shiina as a 'bird', or how the professors were grudgingly allowing it for some reason, or how a few of the older girls kept giggling about how close they were, but also because this somehow seemed to be normal to the two of them.
As far as Ron could piece together of their lives: Harry and Shiina lived in a small apartment, along with a big-sister of sorts called Yukari, where they slept on the couch; Yukari was weird, and they kind of loved her for it; they missed her quite a bit, with Harry both writing and receiving letters at the very least weekly; Harry was very fond of something called 'pizza', and had made visits to the kitchen, courtesy of the twins, to see if they could replicate it there; and they were both very protective of each other.
The last one was why Harry was in detention, and Malfoy was in the Hospital Wing.
It'd been a bit strange though, how Harry had seemed completely unaffected when the annoying blond had been inferring things like the two of them being in love, but had been furious the moment Malfoy had resorted to calling Shiina names.
Then again, Ron shrugged to himself, the more he looked at it, the more he was coming to the conclusion that there wouldn't have been much point for Harry to be upset about it being implied that he and Shiina were dating.
After all, it wasn't as if it would've been a lie.
XXX
Albus felt his lips twitch upwards as he watched Severus fume.
Minerva had given them copies of the 'birds' identification papers, and they were proving both perfectly genuine, as well as a very interesting read.
Sekirei was apparently the name for a population of a bit over a hundred 'birds', and with a bit of further research into the subject, it'd been revealed that most of the species had opted to call themselves 'human' in order to be with their Ashikabi – their Fated One – as most of these seemed to be muggles and would've probably been far harder pressed to explain the specifications of a humanoid bird to their surroundings.
Harry was a wizard Ashikabi though, and he'd come up with the rather devious plan to go in the completely opposite direction, since 'birds' were allowed to be brought to Hogwarts. In fact, the more Albus looked into the situation, the more he was left wondering if Harry wouldn't have actually rejected the invitation to Hogwarts, had it meant that he would've been forced to leave his Sekirei behind.
Which was probably why Severus was so visibly upset, and why Minerva had cheerfully taken to drowning her concerns in a bottle of whiskey.
Albus was mostly amused though, because they truly did make for a rather adorable couple.
XXX
A/n: You have no idea how long I cackled to myself once I realized that I'd finally found a male/male pairing that I could actually imagine writing. It's been years coming.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to write more of it, which is a shame. Being able to write fluff again (even if only a bit of it) has been wonderful. And yeah, Yukari is probably OOC, but I had too much fun with her to rein her in, so she ended up like that.
XXX Omake (Years down the line) XXX
Harry held the wand out in front of him, looking at it curiously.
"So, I guess our theme is 'Death' through and through?" He guessed, turning to Shiina, and carefully ignoring the way the ring still sat oddly heavily on his finger.
"Seems like it." Shiina agreed, tilting his head a bit, still somewhat fascinated with the way his Ashikabi's form could be glimpsed whenever the breeze grabbed a hold of his cloak.
Harry grinned at his Sekirei. "It's an invisibility cloak, Shiina. Of course you're not going to be able to check out my arse."
Shiina's face exploded into a blush, as he tried to splutter a denial.
The Shinigami Sekirei, and the Master of Death. Harry wouldn't have much minded the title, if not for the fact that Yukari would never let them live it down. He was sixteen, of course he could see the innuendo.
And he'd much rather have Shiina call him 'Harry' than 'master'.
Watching his Sekirei as he made all kinds of adorable expressions, Harry took a deep breath to keep himself from grabbing Shiina's sleeve and dragging him off to the nearest broom-closet. He was definitely blaming the adults in his life for making that meditation-like technique a necessity. Yukari, Seo, even Minato, they were all terrible influences.
Shiina finally managed to recover, though he was still blushing helplessly. "I guess that's why you won't let me borrow it, then?" He asked, his voice barely wavering at all.
Harry's self control was – with much enthusiasm – tossed completely out of the window. "I'm sure there's room enough underneath it to share, as long as we both take off the rest of our clothes."
The fact that he'd managed to say that with a straight face – rather than squeak it out and then run in the opposite direction – was definitely Yukari's fault. But as Shiina's embarrassed face started to slip towards something like anticipation, Harry couldn't really bring himself to mind.
Bad influences or not, life was pretty good.
XXX