breakfast of champions (Reo, Haley)

[showyousomethingnice]

[After this.]

Reo spent extra time on his beauty regimen this morning, contouring and concealing and lining his eyes a touch more heavily than usual, because he didn't exactly get much sleep. He spent the night with the brief but life-changing conversation with Ms Dresden echoing in his head; he gave up on homework early on in favor of questions about magic - how it works, how a person uses it, how common it is.

Around midnight, he focused in on her comments about the Laws, went very still for a moment as several connections came together in his mind, and sat down to make a list of names. He made the list several times over before finally splitting it into categories, eventually putting his pen down with a sigh almost an hour later.

He'd attempted sleep after that, but what little he'd gotten had been broken up by dreams that shoved him back into wakefulness. He gave up at around six and got up to shower and dress. Then, with nothing else to do, he went to Kelly's Diner, arriving nearly half an hour early for his meeting with Ms Dresden.

Now he's sipping coffee restlessly, looking his list over and wondering how complete it is. If any of them know. If any any of them have been seen, might be in trouble, might be in danger.

Comments

[showyousomethingnice]

That gives him a vague idea, sort of. It will make more sense as he learns. Magic must be something like talent: eventually, you figure out how much of it you have. Where your limits are, and how far you can push yourself past them anyway.

Reo suspects that a lot of the things he's learned from playing basketball will be applicable here.

"I do, yes," he says. "Thank you."

He ought to turn her offer down - the dormitory isn't that far away - but he's overwhelmed enough that it seems wiser to accept.

And he has one more question.

He can't bring himself to ask it until they're in her car, and even then he has difficulty choking it out.

(He keeps thinking of that oily black fire.)

"Were you able to see what - what kind of magic I've been . . . ?"

He can't finish the sentence. He hopes she'll understand.

[notharry]

She gets it. It's an important thing to know, after all. "Oh, it's black magic all right," Haley answers, straight-forward even if she's sympathetic, starting the poor Blue Beetle up on the second attempt. It coughs a few times before it settles into running properly. "The kind that hurts you in ways you don't necessarily feel, and makes you want to do more. It's dug in there. It'll be hard to fix the damage, but I think you can do it. You want to, and you understand the problem, now. That's the important part."

She looks over at him before putting the car in gear, expression serious and determined. "And I'll help. That's what I'm here for."

[showyousomethingnice]

The answer doesn't come as a surprise; he's had a sinking feeling from the start, unable to dismiss the fact that whatever he's been doing to enhance his fouling skills was only affecting the referees, and the way not being able to jump shocks his opponents every time, like they don't understand how their bodies can betray them so completely, and the similarity of the former to what Hanamiya and Kirisaki Daiichi did. And he never did get the hang of lying to himself, no matter how desperately he wants to.

So it doesn't come as a surprise, but it hits hard, even harder than it would have before the soulgaze, and he leans his head back against the headrest and closes his eyes.

"Thank you," he says, quietly, because he doesn't know what else to say.

Then, after a moment: "I - don't think I'll be going to classes today. The dormitories aren't far from here."

[notharry]

"No problem," is Haley's answer. "I had some friends who went there for a while. They're all graduated now, but I think I remember the way." Which is her way of saying he doesn't have to point her around, he can just digest in silence if he needs to.

And unless he breaks said silence, that's exactly what she does. She does, in fact, remember the way to the dorms, after all.