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Magic Trio x Reader ~Camigani's Corner~ 4

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4: Disorganized

You had a feeling Lukas wasn’t going to be happy when he came home to this. Vladimir was there, too, although he looked like he was more amused than distraught. You wondered if his reaction would have been different if it his home that had been the one that was flooded.

“I’m so sorry, Lukas,” you apologized. “When I turned on the water, I didn’t see a drain so I thought, ‘Oh! I’ll just stop it.’ But it didn’t stop! And I broke the knob off, and I didn’t know what to do, and the water kept coming…”

Lukas was silent for a few seconds before you heard a sigh through his thin nose.

“Just a few minutes ago, I told Vlad, here, that only an idiot wouldn’t be able to operate the bath,” he said. “Congratulations. You’re an idiot.”

“Oh…” you groaned.

Vladimir, on the other hand, remained thoroughly amused.

“Looks like his condo flooded,” he blatantly pointed out. “No matter, ____________. The landlord will have it fixed by, oh, tomorrow morning, I think.”

A groove appeared in between your eyebrows. “And where are we supposed to stay until it’s clear?”

“My place, of course!” the ruby-eyed individual beamed. You recalled preferring his company over Lukas’ to begin with. This could have been a delightful change of events for you.

Magic was quite convenient as explained by Vladimir. None of Lukas’ belongings would be damaged during the drying process, and a new bathtub would be installed on top of his rent. You, in turn, told him that in the real world, it might have taken months for the condo to be free of any mold or water damage repairs. You even had a chance to see the Nightwatch in their shadowy glory.

The night patrol of the Yonder was nothing short of ghoul-like beings that hovered without any noises like black-veiled ghosts with dangling lantern flickering above their faceless heads. Oddly enough, when they arrived on the unfortunate scene of Lukas’ apartment, they appeared to be communicating with the landlord and Lukas. Perhaps they were talking to one another through their minds, you thought.

“I remember the old days.” Vladimir wore a slight smile as he unlocked the door to his own condo. “When we first settled down, it was Arthur who had to show us all the ropes. It’s funny how your bathtubs need to be manually drained and heated. The same goes with herbal preferences. Lukas likes coffee, have you noticed?”

“I’ve noticed,” you smiled in turn. “He likes blue, too.”

Lukas rolled his eyes. He was quite the sarcastic, venomous person. How he and Vladimir had become friends was a mystery to you. “If you think I have a preference for a specific color, wait until you see Vlad’s place.”

Sure enough, when you came inside, you could understand what Lukas meant by color preference.

“It’s…red!” you exclaimed.

“…and black!” Vladimir beamed as he led you two inside. “Make yourselves at home! I’m guessing you already ate before coming here?”

“Sort of,” you reluctantly answered. To say you “ate” was correct by technical terms; to say you were “satisfied” was a false statement.

Vladimir’s apartment, in correlation to his appearance, was like a vampire’s abode. There were splashes of pop black and red throughout his carpet, walls, and furniture down to the décor, itself. Curious little lanterns of red lights floated up and down along the short hallway, and candles of ominous black and white candlelights alternated down the seams of the countertops. To complete the warm atmosphere, wafts of sweets, citrus, and spices drifted to your nose like a winter holiday evening. Now all you needed was a nice blanket and a mug of a hot beverage—preferably from the Hither—and you were good to go.

“I don’t get it,” you said. “It’s so homely in here. How is this place worse than Lukas’?”

“He’s not the best host,” Lukas flatly responded and threw down his coat. “If you need me, I’ll be using the stones.”

“Stones?” you echoed like a hesitant parrot.

Vladimir laughed. “You guys over in the Hither had phones, right? Over here in the Yonder, we have stones. We can hear another person’s voice through them. Only…the problem is they are only able to contact one person.”

“So? Most phones are capable of just contacting one person at a time. There are ways to call multiple people, but it’s usually better to contact one person.”

“No, not like that,” Vladimir chuckled. “I mean they are only capable of contacting one person—as in that’s it.” You still didn’t understand. “You buy the stones in a pair. They have a special wrapping on them so when you speak your voice into it, the stone registers that person’s voice as a speaker. In turn, another person does the same thing. That being said, it’s recommended to speak into the stones in an isolated area.”

“Cute.”

“It can be,” Vladimir chuckled. “If you have a lot of friends and family, you can make your own decorations out of them. Wanna see?”

“Sure,” you smiled.

The two of you went to the main living space where Lukas was sitting on a sofa. When he saw you, he quietly excused himself and shut the door to what looked like a bathroom.

“Hmm, he’s either talking to Arthur, his parents, or his brother,” Vladimir assumed. “Whoever it is, he’s always been a private person.”

“I guess I can understand that.”

“Well, the stones are over here,” your host pointed towards a red stained piece of art that was a glass bowl. Neat little piles of the communication devices in the Hither sat snug and polished in a pile each with a slightly different shade of every color of the rainbow. However, that being said, the stones, themselves, weren’t organized appropriately by color nor did the stones have any names or labels to signify whose name was registered.

Curious, you thought to ask. “How are you supposed to know whose stone has whose voice?”

To that Vladimir made a little smirk. “They actually haven’t fixed that problem yet. It’s one thing to have magic stones that can give us communication, but it’s another to get them to automatically display words. Tangible words are one of the hardest things to get right when dealing with magic. It’s not like those books or movies where there are floating quills that write whatever you want. Nope. They tried that one time. It ended terribly.”

“Ooh, do tell,” you encouraged him to elaborate and leaned against a wall.

“Printing is archaic here,” the pointy-fanged fruit bat grimaced. “It’s all anyone ever does. Since there aren’t any computers, people have been trying to find ways to automate the scribing process. One of the ways people thought it would be easy was to have quills write out what someone was thinking—you know, so it wouldn’t be a nuisance in classrooms and the like. However, when companies were getting complaints about how the quills would write out someone’s inner thoughts. Some good, some bad, but mostly bad.”

You nodded. “Why else would people keep things to themselves?”

“Exactly,” the fruit bat agreed. “And that’s why they discontinued them. They’re still working on the kinks. But never mind the quills. I should probably get you some stones so you can contact us on the other side.”

“Wow. So you can contact people from the Hither?” you gaped. Magic was amazing.

“Uh-huh. But the thing is you have to be careful where you use them,” Vladimir told you. “Well…actually, there’s no problem since the stones can only be heard by the person talking into them, but people might think you’re a little…you know…”

You raised an eyebrow and cocked your head. “Funny in the head?”

Vladimir only nervously chuckled.

“That’s okay,” you laughed. “They have something like that over in the Hither where I come from.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. They’re called Blue-Tooths.”

The fruit bat was confused. “Blue…Tooths? Like blue teeth?”

“No,” you giggled. “They’re like little microphones that go in your ear. People use them so they can drive and talk without holding their phones. They can even be used for music and other things. Sometimes when you’re walking around, it’s like people are talking to themselves, but you might catch a Blue-Tooth in their ear. That or they’re schizophrenic.”

“Huh? Oh, I’d prefer it if the person was wearing a Blue-Fang, then.”

“Blue-Tooth,” you corrected him, “but if you can invent something like that over here, why not call it the Red-Fang? That sounds cool.”

Vladimir had to laugh. “Red-Fang sounds like a poisonous herb. But I’ll think about it. Until then, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get you your stones. You can go with me if you want so we can pick them out.”

“I’d like that. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone shopping with someone other than myself.”

It looked like the red-eyed fruit bat was about to say something when the stingray came back tin the room with an exhausted expression.

“Hi, Lukas,” Vladimir smiled.

“I finished talking with Arthur,” Lukas said. “He said he’s done fixing the shop up, and he knows that we’re both staying with you now.”

“Oh, that’s good,” the fruit bat yawned. You didn’t think he would really be nocturnal. He was really human, after all. “But we still have to count the stock tomorrow to make sure everything’s in order. Oh, and we need to buy some stones for _____________. It’ll be easier to communicate with her.”

Lukas narrowed his eyes into two thin slits. “I should have thought of that before letting her stay in the bath alone. I didn’t think she’d be so much of an i—” But he caught himself when he noticed his friend’s and your looks of disapproval.

“Ray-face, you don’t have too many friends, do you?” you commented.

“He doesn’t,” Vladimir smirked. “The closest friends he has are Arthur and me—well there’s someone else, but he’s a little special. He spends more time travelling around the Hither than the Yonder so we never see him. Actually, I think he’s like you.”

Lukas scoffed. “As much of a delight that would be to insult my friend, ______________ is not like him.”

“You said my name!” you burst out saying.

Both men gave you odd looks at first. Eventually, they returned to their normal expressions: Vladimir with an alert mischievous expression while Lukas’ face bore an uncanny resemblance to a bored fish in a pond two sized too small to swim in.

“So I did,” Ray-face admitted.

Lukas took the time to sit on a plush red sofa. It looked a little squishy as his body nearly disappeared within the soft cloth. If this was the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you thought that perhaps Vladimir’s chairs would be similar to the mother bear’s in that it was too soft. To make your point final, you thought to say it aloud.

“Have you ever heard of the story of Goldilocks with the three bears?” you suddenly asked them.

Neither one looked like they had any relevant idea as to what you were talking about.

“I’ll elaborate then,” you said. “It’s basically a story about a strange girl who comes intruding into a house of three bears while the bears are gone. First she—”

“Does she get eaten at the end of the story?” Lukas interrupted you. “Because anyone who dares to intrude one someone else’s property without permission deserves as such.”

Vladimir made a crooked smile. “Lukas, that’s cold…”

You frowned. “I wasn’t finished. Anyway, the one who intrudes, of course, is Goldilocks. She gets hungry after wandering around the woods and sees three bowls of porridge. Fruit Bat, I think your porridge would be just right. Lukas’ on the other hand…I think his porridge would be the one that’s too cold.”

Ray-face was not pleased. “What makes you think that? Just because I like my temperatures to be a little cold doesn’t mean I serve cold food.”

“But that’s the weird thing,” you said. “For example, in the story the mother bear ends up possessing porridge too cold, a chair too soft, and a bed too low. In contrast to Fruit Bat’s food, he’s the one with Baby Bear’s porridge, but he has Mother Bear’s chairs that are too soft. Then maybe I’m to presume he has beds which are too big, like Father Bears?”

“What in Yonder’s name are you talking about?” Lukas asked.

You softy slapped your forehead. “That’s right. You just told me you didn’t read the story. I’ll have to find you a copy of it back in the Hither. Remind me before I go back, okay?” While you were running your mouth, you noticed Lukas standing up and taking Vladimir with him to a separate room.

“Huh. Well.” You stopped and crossed your arms and legs. “Thank you very much for excusing yourselves in the middle of the conversation. Just fantastic.”

~~~~~

“Hey!” Vladimir hissed. “What’s with you, Lukas? She was telling a story! A terrifyingly accurate one, too!”

“Nonsense,” Lukas spat. “She said it herself; it’s a children’s story. That’s not the problem. Have you noticed that she’s a little…odd?”

“Of course. Everyone’s odd. The world would be boring otherwise.”

“Not like that. I meant as in she’s all over the place. I don’t know what’s the deal with her, but her magic’s a little strange.”

Vladimir blinked. “And like I said, everyone’s odd.”

Lukas let out a defeated sigh. “I can’t keep up with her. She jumps around from one point to another and can’t stay still, but she manages to notice things that we wouldn’t think about otherwise.”

“Like…?”

“Like how she was able to pinpoint your temperature of food, comfort of sofas, and down to your bed size. She hasn’t even seen your beds yet.”

“You’re right,” his friend smiled. “I bet she’ll think it’s fascinating. But it’s not a problem, I think. She smells nice.” He wrinkled his nose. “But I’m glad I can’t smell what you’re smelling. Coffee and fish make a weird combination.”

Lukas would have countered with Vladimir’s own preference of smells, but roasted nuts and lemon peels weren’t anything too out of the ordinary. Neither were Arthur’s preferences. Perhaps he was the odd one out in this case. If that were so, then perhaps he should have stuck to going with the flow.

“Am I really that much of a stingray?” he suddenly thought aloud.

“What?”

“When she first gave me that name I thought she was just doing that to mock me, but the more I think about it, I might be more of one than I think.” He pursed his lips. “Or maybe I’ve had enough adventure for one day and need to go to sleep. You don’t mind if I just go to sleep, do you?”

Vladimir put his hand up to his sides as a gesture of submission. “Go ahead. The sheets are always fresh.”

“A convenience,” his friend mumbled. He hadn’t enjoyed washing his sheets in the Hither when he had been too tired to take a shower. Not only that, but baths weren’t something that were too common where he had studied. In fact, a majority of the places he had stayed in lacked a bathtub. Instead, he had to get accustomed to something called a “shower,” a strange Hither device that rained water of varying temperatures into an constantly draining hole. Sometimes the temperatures were too extreme ranging from too hot and too cold.

Just like that story, he thought with a sigh as he crashed on his bed. He assumed ______________ would smell strongly of lemons in the morning. At least lemon-scented water sounded more plausible than coffee-scented water or Earl Grey. Just before dozing off on one of Vladimir’s ridiculously elevated beds, something reminded him: Arthur and Vladimir had complained that the sofas at his place were too hard. But his beds were just right.
Goldilocks always ticked me off when I was a kid. :XD: 

Axis Powers: Hetalia and its characters belong to Himaruya Hidekazu. 

Any similarities to characters, settings, scripts, or stories from other pieces of literature or media are purely coincidental.

This story belongs to me, *GydroZMaa.

© 2013 - 2024 GydroZMaa
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CocoArtiste's avatar
Goldilocks references~ :D (Big Grin) 
It ticked me off too when I was smol