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.
September 2007: Higher Education
The first few weeks in Octa University were remarkably uneventful, but if any of the four noticed that they naturally made the effort to band together, none of them ever said anything. Their schedules generally didn't match – Henley was in a separate block from Daniel and Jack, and Merritt was two years ahead of them – but they still made it work. To his surprise, Daniel found that he quite liked having friends other than Jack – although, he knew that he probably would not have been able to keep Merritt and Henley around for very long had it not been for the said sleight, so that could be a generous overestimation of his social skills.
But it wasn't to say that he was sick of spending time with Jack, what with sharing the same apartment on campus with him and having most classes together – in fact, the biggest surprise to Daniel was how much it didn't bother him how integral Jack Wilder had come to be to his world. if he were to be completely honest with himself, he really wouldn't have it any other way.
When he was walking back to the apartment one Friday evening, eagerly looking forward to the weekly ritual of watching throwback caper films with Jack until the break of dawn, J. Daniel Atlas did not know what was coming to him.
"Hey, Danny," Jack greeted him cheerfully, combing his hair in front of the mirror.
Danny shut the door behind him and looked at his friend's outfit. "Where are you headed?"
Jack looked at his friend's reflection in the mirror, missing the fleetingly stormy look on the showman's face. "I'm going to catch a movie with – get this – Jasmine Tressler!"
"Who?" Danny said stiffly.
"Jasmine Tressler, man, the daughter of the school's top benefactor!"
"Okay…?" Danny asked in a flat voice, putting his bag on top of the counter table. "And the relationship between her being the daughter of some rich guy and you dating her would be… you getting some money out of it?"
Jack's insides went stone cold at Danny's words, and he knew that Danny knew it too. His friend's blue eyes widened and he shook his head. "No, Jack, that's not—"
"It's cool," Jack said in a clipped tone, putting down the comb and reaching for the leather jacket hanging neatly across the back of his chair.
In two long strides, Danny was right in front of Jack, holding him by the wrists. "Jack, I…" He gulped. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."
It was as much as a frantic and tearful apology as anyone could ever get from the mighty J. Daniel Atlas, and he knew it. Jack smiled sadly and nodded. "I know. But it doesn't suck any less."
"Jack—"
"Danny, please," Jack cut in, his mind clouding at having Danny so close to him. God damn it, he needed this date with Jasmine Tressler, he needed to get his mind off things, anything to keep him from thinking about this…! "I have to go."
Danny let his wrists go, and Jack immediately grabbed the leather jacket from his seat and walked quickly to the door. He hesitated for a split second before turning to face his friend, who was watching him carefully, smiling at him. "We're good, man," he said as he shut the door behind him.
Jack was never one to dwell on his emotions, or the "inner workings of the heart" as his sister liked to call them. He found himself distractions every time he came close to tapping into said workings: mostly learning new magic tricks and dating new people. Unfortunately, his current inner working – one Danny Atlas with his buzz cut and impossibly blue eyes – was much too ingrained in magic for him to actually get his mind of said magician, and so here he was, stuck with the second distraction.
He wasn't sure when it happened, and to be honest, he didn't want to think about it. He didn't have a problem with possibly liking a man (though it was a first for him, and he had to admit, it was pretty scary), but Jack did have a problem with possibly liking Danny.
Danny was his best friend – his perfectly uninterested "romance isn't my thing" best friend –there was no way he was losing Danny on account of a stupid infatuation that wouldn't go away at the moment. Time to get his game on.
"What's got you wound up, hon?" came a sultry voice next to him.
Daniel looked over to his right, his vision slightly cloudy – he didn't drink much, and three shots of tequila was something his body was completely unused to. He willed himself to focus on the girl next to him: she was pretty enough, a brunette with shoulder-length hair and a coffee-colored complexion.
He shook his head as he fished out his deck of cards from his pocket. "Let's talk about something else," he whispered right back, keeping his eyes on her as he started shuffling – one of the many shuffles Jack taught him to do with his eyes closed. He could see Jack's eyes flash, obviously quite impressed, and he could feel traces of sobriety creeping back on him.
With the steadiest hands, he held up the full deck of cards. "I'm going to flip through this deck. Keep in mind what card catches your eye – no, not this one, that's too obvious." He points to whatever card is at the bottom of the deck, and Jack – the brunette – chuckles. "Ready?"
She nodded, waiting to be impressed. He flipped through the deck, and he takes great care to spend more time flipping through the middle part of the deck, where he stowed the duplicate seven of diamonds. She frowned slightly, as Daniel expected, so he prompted, "One more time?"
She nods again, and this time seems to be able to focus more clearly on whatever card she saw. He closes the deck and shuffles the cards below, locking eyes with the girl as he deftly removes the carefully marked duplicate cards and shooting one in her open purse. "Do you have one in mind?" he asks her.
"Yes," she confirmed.
Daniel spreads out the cards to face Jack – the girl. "Is your card here?"
She scans the deck for the seven of diamonds and obviously does not find it. "No."
"That's because you're looking too closely," he berates with a smile as he watches the frown on Jack's face deepen. "I always say that the closer you look, the less you'll see. Check your purse."
If someone had told Daniel a little earlier in life that cute bar girls would respond so well to card tricks, perhaps he could have started a long time ago and spared himself from the inconvenience he was going through right now. Perhaps it could have even been a very real thing with (oh, how convenient) Jackie, who he had burst into their apartment with, half-naked and panting.
"Jack, Jack—" Daniel said the name like a vigil, exciting her even more.
"I'm your biggest fan," Jackie growled, tearing away at his shirt.
"I can see that, from the way you're attacking my face right now," Daniel said nonsensically, earning a laugh from her as she sends him backward onto the couch, pushing him down and straddling him.
He tries to sit up, eager to… hell, he didn't know what he wanted to do with her, but she held him down and put a finger to his lips. He widened his eyes questioningly. "Wait, how did you do that?"
He shrugged. "A magician never reveals his secrets, love."
She rolls her eyes. "Of course. But is it always—"
"The seven of diamonds?" Daniel supplied, and she nodded eagerly. He held her by the waist and sat up slightly. "I can do that trick fifty-two different ways."
Her eyebrows, too thin for his liking, wagged seductively. "Can you do fifty-two different tricks on me?"
He gave her a once over and smiled up at her mischievously. "Let's see what I can do."
Daniel was close, so close to actually forgetting about what bothered him, when a shiny object in his shoe caught his eyes. How in God's name did it get there?
Needless to say, his biggest fan landed on the floor with a heavy thud and slammed her way out of their apartment in no time at all, but Daniel no longer cared. The only thing he did care about was the card now in his hand, with nothing but a date, a time, a place, and an eye staring at him from the back of The Lovers.
Danny was still on the couch, turning the card over repeatedly and rewinding the entire night in his head, when Jack burst into their apartment door excitedly. "Oh boy, you got one, too!" he crowed as he jumped on the couch next to Danny, wincing very slightly as he peered over Danny's shoulder. "I wish they could have given me something friendlier like yours, though. I mean, of all the cards in the freaking deck."
Danny spared Jack's Death card a cool look before returning to his own card. "Yeah, cool. How'd you get one, though, if you were on a date with Jasmine Tressler?"
Jack shook his head, shifting slightly on the couch, letting out a big laugh. "I never made it in time, but man, you will not believe the night I had! I was on my way to the meeting place but I saw what I thought was this jerk junior taking stuff from some girl who was putting up a huge fight about it. Well, anyway, I nicked back the stuff he stole and gave it back to the girl, and it turns out I just saved the entire database of student information from Owen Case!"
Danny's head shot up with real interest at that. "The brilliant IT kickout?"
Jack nodded eagerly, shifting again. "Turns out he's been lurking and blackmailing the poor girl from registrar to give him the stuff for weeks. She's a mess, I feel horrible for her, but I think the directors can help her." He points to the card. "Anyway, after I turned over the girl and the files to security, I felt this card in my pocket! And speaking of what's in my pocket, what is this…"
Jack reached for something as he shifted in his seat, and he saw Danny pale slightly as he pulled a tube of lipstick and a very fancy-looking brush that he was fairly certain neither of them could own.
To say that it quickly turned awkward was an understatement. Danny was like a fish on land, mouth opening and closing, but with no sound coming out, while Jack was desperately racking his brains for the right thing to say at the moment. With no confidence in any of his options, he decided to go with, "Had some fun?" he said lightly, forcing a smile on his face.
"I… uh…" Danny stammered, for once at a loss for words.
Jack's heart was hammering wildly, but there was simultaneously an awful sensation that he made him wish at that moment that he didn't have a heart.
"Aww, Danny boy, I know it's not any of my business, but as your favorite roommate, the least I could do is meet the girl so I can give her proper warning!" he laughed loudly, slapping Danny lightly on the shoulder.
Danny let out a soft scoff, shaking his head as he took the tube of lipstick and brush. "You think Henley will like this?"
"Dude, I don't think you should go around giving your girl's stuff to another girl. That's pretty weird," he responded, shaking his head with a smile. "Besides, won't you see her again? You need to do a bit of follow-through if you—"
The showman shook his head, looking Jack straight in the eye. "No. Absolutely not." Jack gulped as he stared back into the serious blue eyes of his best friend. "I've got what I need."