THE LESS YOU'LL SEE
NOTES: I cannot stress these points enough, so I will put these at the start of every chapter:
1) This is primarily a Lover's Death story.
2) I do not own anyone (i.e., characters, etc) or anything (i.e., lines, scenes, concepts, etc) from the Now You See Me no copyright infringement intended. I really am just a hopeless fan girl refreshing my feed for more stories about Lover's Death and Hermit+Priestess (daily, twice a day, might I add).
3) Some events in this story are inspired by my own experiences, and should you see yourself in the story, then let me give you a high five, but that honestly was not my intention.
4) Should anyone be willing to beta read the magic technicalities in future chapters, then raise your hand so we can talk. And can more of you please share awesome Lover's Death and Hermit+Priestess stories? We would all love that.
February 2007: Valentine's Day
There were so many things Jack didn't quite like about Valentine's Day this year: it fell on a Wednesday (no logical explanation for that), he had to go to some student orientation for Octa University (not something he was particularly excited about), and Lula had pulled yet another disappearing act for last weekend's family brunch. Perhaps he didn't need to justify his mood with more reasons other than the fact that he was pissed that Lula had failed to meet his family yet again. He wondered what harebrained excuse she would come up with this time.
"For a sleight of hand, you're awfully easy to steal from at this point, Wilder," came a voice from behind him, one he had not heard in months. "Don't tell me you haven't been practicing?"
Jack spun around to see a smirking Daniel, holding up his wallet mockingly. Gone was his thick patch of light brown hair, instead replaced with extremely short bristles – he must have shaved off his hair at least two months ago. He gave in to his impulse to rub the bald spot with his knuckles rowdily with a cry of joy, Daniel muttering "oh, okay" under his breath. "J. Daniel Atlas! What are you doing here?"
Daniel gestured emptily around them, the hall filling with students. "Student orientation, unless there's another purpose for all this?"
Jack grinned. "Dude, it's been months! It's great to see you again!" He paused thoughtfully. "I just realized that I never got to ask where you actually lived! Do you live around here?" he asked with the full intention of commuting back with his friend.
The blue-eyed boy shifted in place, as though dreading to answer the question. "No, actually. I, uh, live in LA."
"And you're going to Octa for uni? Sweet!"
Daniel shrugged, keeping his smile tightly contained. He forgot how contagious Jack's cheerfulness was. "Maybe. What about you?"
"Let's see if their Card Throwing and Hypnosis electives would impress me, then we can talk," Jack deadpanned.
Daniel chuckled at that. "I wouldn't hold out too much hope for that," he said.
"Oh, I really wouldn't be so quick to judge dear old Octa, Danny boy," came a drawling voice from behind the two. "How nice to see The Showman and The Sleight together… again… for good… I hope."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Hello to you too, Merritt."
"Yes, I see time has not encouraged you to cut the bullshit from your speech," Daniel added.
Just then, the tall, lanky boy with a scowling face and old man glasses next to them stood up straighter and brought an invisible violin to his shoulder. He air-played an imaginary violin, a concerto only he could hear. The surrounding people tittered as they looked on, while some simply rolled their eyes and smiled.
"Oh, you shouldn't have done that, Merritt's got the code locked in place for a special few in here," said a redhead who walked up from behind Merritt to stand next to him. "Hi, I'm—"
"Henley?" Daniel said incredulously.
The redhead's eyes widened as she realized who she was talking to. "Danny?"
Jack sensed Daniel tense up as he observed the newcomer. She had warm and welcoming brown eyes, and her long red hair fell into a straight path until her curvy waist. She wore a pair of black rider's gloves over her hands, one of which was now safely in Merritt's own right hand. He saw Danny's eyes flick very quickly to where their hands linked, and Jack cleared his throat uncomfortably, a strange feeling suddenly wedging inside his throat.
Merritt, however, had no such discretion in communicating his sudden discomfort. He looked between Daniel and Henley with narrowed eyes and was about to open his mouth to say something to Daniel, but Jack immediately placed himself between the two boys and held out a hand to Henley.
"It looks like we won't be getting a proper introduction, so let me take the initiative," Jack said easily, and Henley bit back a smile as Daniel suddenly looked at Jack's back with an unreadable expression. "Jack Wilder, ma'am."
"Henley Reeves, it's really nice to meet you, Jack."
"Likewise. It's not every day I see a girl as pretty as you," he said lightly, causing Henley to blush.
"See, that's exactly what I tell her every day, Jack-o," Merritt interjected, smiling indulgently at Henley for a second before turning back to Daniel. "And that's why you two ceased to be a couple."
The reactions were instant.
"Oh no, we were—we were…" Daniel stuttered.
"We were never a couple," Henley said firmly.
"We used to practice… stuff…"
"He used to…" Henley cleared her throat, making a slicing motion in the air, "… saw me in half."
"Yes, she was a good assistant," Daniel said haughtily. "She just didn't shed off the baby fat quickly enough."
Jack flinched, and Merritt's scowl deepened. Henley looked outraged. "You built the trapdoor like this small, Danny!" she cried out angrily, her hands showing exactly how small she perceived the trapdoor to be. "No one could fit through there, no one."
"Rebecca fit," Daniel said smoothly. "Rebecca fit for years."
"I… I… do you know how hard it was to fit into those tight little costumes?"
"Uh, no, because I was the main attraction."
"Hey you," Merritt said in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, pulling a nearly tearful Henley closer to him. "You got this. What did I tell you? You deserve to be made to feel special, because…"
"Because I am," Henley finished in a small voice, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. "Thank you, Mer."
It was amazing how much Atlas gets to her after all these years, Merritt thought as he held her close. She has some serious esteem issues because of this kid, and he honestly doesn't even seem to mean any harm. He turned to glare and possibly ruin Atlas at the moment, but the sight in front of him made him stop immediately.
Jack was looking at the blue-eyed boy next to him with what seemed like a neutral expression, but Merritt knew a lot better. The kid was an open book: in fact, one look from Daniel, however, told both Merritt and Jack that Jack created no such illusion of neutrality.
"Look, whatever it is you have to say, Wilder, save it," Daniel snapped. "It's probably nothing I haven't heard before."
Daniel's tone would have scared off anyone else, but then again Jack was not exactly anyone else. The sleight simply shrugged and punched him in the arm. "Wilder? Sounds rich coming from you. Well, I can't say you impressed anyone, Atlas, but who am I to tell you what was wrong about the situation, yeah?"
Daniel paused and frowned. "So… no scolding? No 'you are such an asshole' statements accompanied by you walking away?"
Jack laughed at that. "Danny, do I look like your girlfriend to you? I should hope not, man," he chuckled, shaking his head. "Besides, you're probably smart enough to figure that out on your own."
"What do you—hey!"
Jack evaded the punch that Daniel sent his way, turning back to face Merritt and Henley. "Look, guys, so… on behalf of Danny here, who will probably never own up to this moment, can we all just pretend that last five minutes of our lives never happened?"
Daniel sniffed, but otherwise made no opposing comment.
"Well, no words from the great J. Daniel Atlas is like an apology and declaration of undying love in one, so I'll take it," Henley said, rolling her eyes.
Daniel, on his part, extended a hand to Henley, which she took with a smile. He reached out to extend the same hand to Merritt, who seemed to move to take it but – at the last second – flipped him off. "You watch your move when you show your face in this school, Atlas," Merritt said.
"Well, isn't that nice!" Jack said with forced cheer just as Daniel opened his mouth to snap back a retort. "Look, let's go find seats before anyone else wants to kill someone else."
"So, you and Henley?" Jack said to Daniel much later, when they had parted ways with Merritt and Henley.
"I'm sorry, can you be more precise? That question can be taken in so many different ways. 'So, you and Henley killed a man', 'so, you and Henley used to sing in an opera house, 'so, you and Henley were in the army together', 'so, you and—'"
"Okay, I get it," Jack cut in hastily. "So, you and Henley were… together? As in a couple? When did that happen?"
Daniel fought against the urge to close his eyes and massage his nose bridge. This is definitely not the kind of conversation he wanted to have with Jack Wilder, especially since said conversation was about a messy history with his ex-assistant, and most especially not after months of negligible contact with said friend. But now was not the time to alienate Jack, not when he at least was in a 'talking mood', so he sucked it up and answered the question.
"Henley was right, we were never a couple," Daniel admitted. "We met when we were fourteen and we wanted to get into the whole magic scene. To be honest, I know she liked me, and I tried to like her back, and I think I did a little bit, but not… you know, it wasn't enough." Please don't ask why, please don't ask why, please don't ask why.
Jack was tempted to ask why, but something in Daniel's carefully stoic face told him not to push the conversation about Henley further. So instead, he brought out a deck of cards and started shuffling idly, piquing Daniel's interest. He had to hide a smirk at the impressed look fighting to show up on Daniel's face as he showed off his new shuffle. "Well, Danny, that's in the past, so that's fine. I'm sure you're living the life with your current someone."
Daniel shook his head, still mesmerized by Jack's nimble hands tossing one card after the other. "I don't have anyone."
"Oh, okay," Jack said, trying to contain his surprise. "That's… that's cool, I guess. It'd be good to remember what it was like being single."
Daniel looked up very suddenly at Jack's last sentence. "You, uh, you have a girlfriend now?"
Jack snorted. "Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. She's… how do you put it… flighty. She's got this whole 'now you see me, now you don't' kind of thing going on. I think you'd like her, though."
I really don't think I would.
"Her name's Lula, and she's quite the showman herself. She specializes in self-decapitation."
What kind of a name is that? Self-decapitation? Pity she prefers to do it herself.
But as usual, Daniel didn't know what to say to that, and Jack seemed to be okay with it. The next few hours were spent like no months of silence had come between them, both of them once more taking up magic in their corner table in the café next to their future college (let's face it, no one needed a fortune teller for that). Small talk about school and their courses filled the comfortable air here and there, but on the whole, it was all about the craft they both enjoyed and loved with a passion. Needless to say, Jack didn't need to see any of the electives, existent or otherwise, to decide where he wanted to go in a couple of months.
When the time came for them to part ways much later, Jack felt something heavy sink inside him when Daniel stood up and cleared his throat, like how he always would right before he would say goodbye, like nothing happened. He made to stand and extend a hand to friend, but was instead caught in an awkward one-handed hug.
"See you soon, Jack?" The statement came out more as a question, a little tentative, a lot hopeful, or so it seemed to Jack at the moment.
He nodded, a smile lighting up his face. "You bet, Danny."