catch me

Ajai: oh problem, definitely.

“Of course not, don’t be silly—we teach ourselves how to pick locks for when those dastardly Educational Overlords string us up in shackles by our ankles for speaking out of turn…” Quinn quipped back lightly, a wry smile spread across her face. “…now hush with your soapbox for just a moment, would you? I need to listen…” And without elaborating on this cryptic request any further, Q reached out to run her fingers along the restraints that held AJ’s wrists, opening herself up to receive the story held within the pieces of metal. She ran her thumb over the keyhole, her brows knitted up, nodding along in understanding; this object felt incomplete, like a part of it was missing. It wanted to be whole again.

Quinn pulled a bronze Knut out of her pocket and levitated it between her and AJ before transfiguring it into a molten state. In her mind’s eye, she saw the grooves and crannies within the lock, and with her wand she molded matching prongs and shapes into the metal as a sculptor would clay. She examined the would-be key from all angles critically, and when she was satisfied, she gave her wand a tiny twist, and the bronze solidified. The key slid effortlessly into the lock and with a click, the restraints released. 

Q caught them in her free hand as they fell from AJ’s wrists, and without missing a beat she said, “So…about that meeting? You look tired—would you allow me to buy you a coffee, at least?”

AJ opened his mouth to say something else, but snapped his mouth shut as he felt a shift in the magic around them that made his ears pop and watched the Knut Quinn pulled from her pocket turn into the key that finally released the restraints around his wrist. The static current he had felt buzzing under his skin was gone too and he released a quite sigh as he rubbed his wrist.

Max raised her brow at the hedge witch for a moment before humouring him, taking her badge out with an easy flick. After showing her ID, she tucked it away then gave a sigh, “Uh huh. Very cool. Come on, let’s find out who you belong to,” She finished off her coffee and twisted her wrist so that it re-appeared in the garbage disposal, before placing a steady hand on Ramesh’s shoulder and heading back in the direction of the Auror office. “I didn’t know you were back in town. Who are you staying with- are the Free Traders offering board again?”

Xiomara reached up to brush her fingers against the Kneazle’s fur, and the Beast purred loudly in her ear, resting its head against her shoulder. She frowned lightly as it gently wagged its slightly barbed tail. It didn’t seem dangerous. And Xi knew firsthand what it was like being regulated because of mistakes made on your worst day…

AJ went to take it from her, she tightened a little and narrowed her eyes at him, “Don’t just go at her like that, you scared her!” Xiomara said. The Kneazle had also turned to narrow its dark eyes at AJ, and both of them glared. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m keeping her. You’re harmless, aren’t you…” Xi ignored the hedge witch bleeding next to her and turned to the cat again. It nuzzled against her cheek, purring once more. She scowled, “Are you deaf as well as dumb? Take me home!”

AJ threw his arms up in exasperation as the matching glares turned to him. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You’ve been berating me the whole car ride to get rid of it and one second of it drooling on your shoulder and now I can’t even look at it?” How did he go from saving the poor misunderstood creature to being the bad guy that now they both hated.

- When I was 7 I broke my arm. Mom and Dad didn't believe me, so I sat in the kitchen for three hours until my crying got annoying and they gave in. My left arm is shorter than my right.

- I'm allergic to bees.

“So it’s dangerous enough to get put down, but you want to bring it into our house?!” She looked over her shoulder as the Kneazle purred on her lap, wondering where they might pull over to dump the box, thinking the intention was to release it into the wild. 

They drove in relative silence then, Xi constantly scanning the roads for different parks they might pull over at. The Kneazle peeked outside the box, moving up to rest its massive fluffy paws and chin on Xiomara’s shoulder. She frowned at it, ignoring the Beast for a while, until they got near the park a few blocks down from the safehouse. “We could let it out here.” She suggested, the Kneazle now nestling in Xi’s neck.

“It’s a cat- or Kneazle- or whatever ... they’re supposed to be smart. How dangerous could they be? If anything it further proves how kill happy your Ministry is. If anything steps even the slightest paw out of line they are determined to get rid of it.” AJ raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the box in her lap, although he could have been talking werewolves, vampires, hedges ... take your pick.

Quinn opened her mouth to very accurately point out that it was him who accosted her on the street outside the Ministry-of-freaking-Magic, but AJ started off in the opposite direction before she’d had a chance to utter a single word. Q closed her lips in a grimace, her brain buzzing rapidly for any sort of leverage. 

Then she spotted the handcuffs. 

Very lightly, Q called out after the Traveller, “You want out of those restraints, don’t you?” She waited until she knew she had his attention to continue, “…sixty seconds and I could pick the lock. Easy. You could be a free man…what do you say?“

AJ paused in the middle of the walkway, mentally going over his options in his head. Would picking a lock be enough to constitute a debt? Surely even if it did, the cost wouldn’t be too high ... Fuck it. The sooner he agreed the sooner he could leave before she upped the stakes right? “Sixty seconds? Are these the kinds of life skills they teach at that fucking bouncy castle they call Hogwarts?”

Sarcastically, Nate sniped back, “Oh, you mean it wasn’t labeled with big red letters warning, ‘CAUTION: CONTENTS NOT UNLIKELY TO KILL YOU JUST FOR BREATHING?’ What a delightful oversight for all of us…” He thought about the animal’s glowing-eyed glower, the way it hissed every time Nate moved. “You think it senses a kindred spirit in her?” he sneered, and then looked around him with an air of paranoia before adding, “…shit. Don’t tell Xi I said that—I’m in hot water with her as it is…”

Quickly mimicking Nate’s paranoia, AJ cracked open the door to make sure Xi wasn’t standing just outside. He had no doubt that he would instantly be in the same hot water just for listening to Nate talking shit about her. “Don’t involve me with your shit! Listen if the cat- kneazle- thing- hadn’t already gotten attached to her I might have just brought it to someone else, but it chose her so I can’t get within five feet of it to get rid of it.”

She sipped her coffee, eyeing him and raising a brow, as if she was waiting for him to explain what favour he needed- but then, as she waited, she noticed the way he rolled his shoulders, took his features into account, and realised who he was. Max sipped her coffee. “Surprised you don’t just travel away, Ramesh. Unless-” Max slowed some, glancing behind him to confirm. She ‘tsked’ him. “What happened this time?”

AJ’s head snapped up when she mentioned his name and realized that she somehow knew that he was a traveler. “I’m sorry ... remind me how I know you?” he asked, repeating the same words she’d asked him just a minute ago and feeling like he’d stepped into a trap when it was more than likely this was all just a horrible coincidence. “What? Um ... nothing?” He really didn’t know how to answer. Somehow telling an Auror that he’d just slipped out of custody didn’t feel like the smartest move. Then again, this Auror, who apparently knew him well enough to know he was likely up to no good, hadn’t made any moves to immediately put him back under arrest. 

Xiomara was just about to pry the lid off the box when AJ snapped at her. “Don’t yell at me!” She yelled back at him. The blonde narrowed her eyes as the box vibrated on her lap. Ignoring the hedge witch completely, she opened the box and frowned down at its contents.

Inside, a large, white and caramel brown long-haired cat blinked up at her. Its ears were tall and pointed, fluff sticking out of them, and its long tail wrapped around its body multiple times. 

She turned to glare at AJ. “What did you do.”

“I’m not yelling!” AJ shouted back, very clearly yelling. “Don’t-- Fuck,” he groaned throwing his head back against the headrest then quickly putting the car in drive. “Okay, don’t be mad-- they were gonna kill it, I think.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “That’s fucking easy for you to say. It hasn’t staked its claim on your actual bed, where you have to sleep every night while ideally not getting mauled to death…” He examined a long row of three parallel slashes that ran up his forearm—evidence of his grievances. “…longer than cats, for sure. By like—fifteen years, at least. Why…how old do you think that fucker is?”

AJ shrugged. “I honestly haven’t got a fucking clue. It’s not like there was any information on the box it was in. I just didn’t want to see it killed. Didn’t know it’d get so attached to Xi ...” 

Oz clutched his heart, playing up the melodramatic injustice of it all. “Why—that sounds like an act a service ta me! Entertainin’ the plebs, makin’ an honest quid…” He thumped AJ sympathetically on the back, and then slid into the passenger seat of the man’s car after it was unlocked with a long, relieved sigh. Before the car was even started, Oz rubbed his hands together and said, “I’m positively starved—fancy pickin’ up some a those little doughnut bites?”

AJ pushed Oz towards the passenger side of car as he walked around to the drivers side laughing quietly to himself. The way Oz looked up at him as he leaned down through the drivers side window was unfair. How could he say no? And now that he mentioned it, he really hadn’t had a chance to eat this morning. “Yeah, I could go for some doughnut bites,” his stomach echoed the thought as he opened the door and started to climb in. “Give me a minute--” AJ’s words were cut off as he felt his magic surround him and just as he was getting into his seat his magic pulled him under and he disappeared in flash of dull light.

He appeared in a cramped door-less closet back at the safe house. Since the Aurors and Libcon had started following him around a couple years ago he made it a habit of making himself a little hidey hole like this one in every safe house his sister and him stayed at. Simply by getting rid of the door of an existing closet and walling it off he made a room only he could get into. It’s where he kept all their personal items, money, fake wands. He doubted Nate and Xiomara would even notice their old closet disappearing. He grabbed his wallet and slipped back through the magic to reappear without a sound back in his car next to Oz with almost no time gone in between. “Sorry ‘bout that. I didn’t have any money on me. Ready to go?”

AJ rolled his eyes. “You’re just being dramatic. If you don’t look it in the eyes it actually just ignores you.” He sighed, rubbing the scratches on his wrist he got from saving the demon. “Crazy likes crazy ... It’s old. How long do kneazles even live.”