"I need, um, a..." Todoroki looks helplessly at his work sheet, "An archer's bow that gives people... good luck...? Do you..." He looks almost desperately at Midoriya, "Please tell me you have that."
"An archer's bow?" Midoriya repeats incredulously, brow furrowing as he tries to think about it, "That's odd. Are you sure your homework was to learn how to use an archer's bow that gives people good luck?"
"I don't, it's not," Todoroki shakes his head helplessly and all but shoves his paper at Midoriya, "I'm confused."
Midoriya scans the paper, lips pursed and brow furrowed before his eyes light up and he laughs, "A politeness bow!"
"...a bow?" Todoroki echoes uneasily, "Isn't that it?"
"It's not an archer's bow," Midoriya laughs, "It's a spell so that when you bow," he pauses and bends over, demonstrating the type of bow that he means, "You give good luck to the person you're bowing to. It's a customary greeting in witch circles, considered good etiquette."
"Oh, I see," Todoroki flushes, embarrassed at his mistake, "I apologize. I'll just... go... um..." he makes vague hand gestures at the door, clearly waiting for Midoriya to hand over the paper and send him on his merry way.
Midoriya, though, squints at the paper.
"It's homework?" He clarifies.
"Yes," Todoroki squirms as he realizes that Midoriya is not just handing him back his sheet of paper any time soon, "I'm supposed to learn how to do it by Friday."
"And it's Wednesday," Midoriya hums a light focus enhancing spell in the back of his throat. Todoroki recognizes it as one that Momo uses sometimes when they're studying together over Skype, both knowing each other and using the same online course to learn witchcraft. "Ah, I see. You're home schooled," he smiles at Todoroki, "I can help you learn, if you want. Then you don't have to look through all the big books to try and figure it out yourself."
Todoroki tries not to sag in relief, but it's a near thing, "You would?" he asks, relieved.
"Of course!" Midoriya beams, and suddenly, seeming to remember himself, flushes, "Only if you want, of course."
"I would be incredibly grateful," Todoroki reassures him quickly, and hopes he doesn't sound too desperate. "I'm still in training, after all, and you're already a licensed witch, right? But then again, you are a specialist..."
Midoriya freezes, eyes widening, "How did you know that I was a specialist?" He asked, eyes wide.
"Ah..." Todoroki blinks a bit, "Your mark. It's not on your temple, which means it must be somewhere else, right? That means you're a specialist, I think?"
"Oh, right," Midoriya nods, "Specialists have to know the basics, though. Like how you have to get through high school before pursuing post-secondary education."
"I see," Todoroki hums, "What do you specialize in?"
Midoriya stills a bit, and then taps his fingers against the counter, "Oh, nothing interesting," he answers lightly, a poor attempt at deflecting, but it says enough that Todoroki understands not to prod. "Do you plan on becoming a specialist?"
"I don't know," Todoroki clicks his tongue against the back of his teeth, "I've heard the process is really painful, since your magic passageways are physically altered, right?"
"That's true," Midoriya dips his head into a nod, "But you get to do some really precise things that Jaques witches can't do. To know a magic intimately, to have it in your every movement, every breath..." his fingers trace the air and there's the telltale smell of charcoal and ash before the air sparks at his fingertips for a moment and bleeds into a misty blue lion, then it dissolves, "If you want to pursue a life of magic, I think you can't be a Jaques."
"Jack of all trades, master of none," Todoroki murmurs, referring to the phrase from which the term Jaques witch originated.
Midoriya flashes him a light smile, "Yeah. Of course you can take your time as you want. And specializing doesn't mean you can't do other forms of magic, of course. Some witches specialize in many forms. I've even heard of one that specialized in three forms of magic, it was amazing to hear about someone with such dedication."
"It sounds amazing, to specialize," Todoroki thinks wistfully.
"It is," Midoriya smiles softly as well, and then starts a bit, "But we can think about that later. You're still learning the basics of etiquette, we can't delve too deep yet, right?"
"Right," Todoroki agrees, turning a bit red, "Thank you for helping me out, Midoriya-kun."
"No problem," Midoriya hums, "So, this spell is extremely different from rune magic because it's more fate aligned. The most simple comparison I can make is with red magic, since red typically deals with fate, though this shouldn't be mistaken with orange, which obviously is fire..."
There is the distinct smell of pine in the air, healing, positivity and renewal, Todoroki thinks, mind instantly jumping to his most recent lessons on the usage of natural herbs in witchcraft.
"Testing a new spell?" He asks, making his way through to the back of the shop.
"Hm?" There's a yelp, and then Midoriya appears, head popping up from behind a shelf full of crystal balls, "Oh, hi, Todoroki-kun! Sorry, no, not testing something new. A friend came by with a bag of pine seeds and I thought that it might be nice to use it in the shop's barriers."
Todoroki blinks, "The shop has barriers?"
He's heard about witch shops having barriers, but he's never really heard of it.
"Yes, of course," Midoriya smiles at him, quirky and nervous, "Nothing very strong, of course. Just little things to try and keep away those with ill intentions and the such. Some witches with less resources tend to break into unprotected shops to try and steal their supplies," he sighs, "Bad for business."
"Of course," Todoroki rubs his nose, "Does it keep out all black magic?"
"Oh no," Midoriya blinks, "I mean, some people are cursed, yeah? So I can't do that. And if I only sold to witches with pure hearts, I'd never get any business. I just try to keep out the really obviously dangerous ones, that's all."
"Isn't that illegal?" Todoroki shifts uneasily, "I mean, psychic spells were outlawed in the Graihynk Convention of '87, right?"
Midoriya purses his lips together, "It's not exactly psychic," he answered, wiggling his fingers, "It's, like, it detects intent and whether it's dark or not?"
"Okay," Todoroki says doubtfully, but he doesn't press the matter because Midoriya is the type that would probably melt in self-guilt and burst into tears if he were suspected of breaking the law. "What's the pine for?"
"Healing and positivity," Midoriya hums.
"How does that help?" Todoroki furrows his eyebrows. "Doesn't seem to protect your shop."
"Not really, but," Midoriya's fingers dance in the air, and the seeds seem to melt into the wall. Green curls, almost like they're being painted by an invisible hand, appear on the walls, and then they melt into the runes, little green lines scattered about like pine needles have just been scattered across and absorbed by the wall. "It's always nice to have a little positivity, yeah? Especially when you're sitting all alone in a shop for most of the day."
"Oh," Todoroki feels a stab of guilt, though he isn't quite sure why, "Does it make you feel lonely?"
Midoriya offers Todoroki a soft, kind smile, as though he understands Todoroki's intentions.
(Which is odd, because Todoroki isn't sure he understands them fully himself.)
"It's fine," he shakes his head and stands up, brushing imaginary dust from his legs, "I get to learn a lot in the time that I have to myself. And I have friends that come by, so I'm not too much at loss for company."
"Oh," Todoroki murmurs. For some odd reason, he feels a swell of something almost akin to disappointment.
Midoriya, sensing this, laughs a bit and bumps his shoulder against Todoroki's, "You're one of my friends, right?"
It's almost sad, Todoroki thinks to himself, how quickly he lights up and beams at Midoriya, "I'm grateful to be friends with you," he says.
"Aw," Midoriya rubs the back of his neck, a bit red, "That's so sweet of you to say."
"It's the truth," Todoroki answers earnestly.
Midoriya's grin is wide if a tad abashed, "I'm grateful to be friends with you, too."
They both turn red and turn away from each other a bit, before Todoroki laughs awkwardly, "So, I, um, want to learn about using elemental basics today?"
"Yes, of course!" Midoriya scrambles up, "So, ah, let's start with water, since you seem to know the most about it..."
