POKER FACE

He’d most definitely fucked up, if he hadn’t been able to realize that from the likely eardrum penetrating shriek.. it would’ve been worrying. Takane was self conscious enough already and the fact that Kaito was able to pull a reaction like that out of her should’ve said plenty. She didn’t dare lift a hand to her head, though, worried about what she would actually feel.

This ‘trick' was way more than she'd bargained for. What a pain. 

His retort makes Takane bristle a little and she gives him a look that could probably rival the nastiest look he’d seen before this, nostrils flaring just slightly. “Why’d you have to touch my hair? You should’ve said what kind of ‘trick’ it was!” The brunette nearly snarls in response, hands clenched into fists at her sides.

If she was tall enough to be in his face it was likely she would be, given how far forward she was leaning. She was practically on her tiptoes on this point anyway.

Watching him lay his hands all over her hair was disturbing though and her clearly pissed expression smoothed out a bit into something of mild disgusted.. tinted with annoyance. Ugh. 

"Stop touching it like that, it’s still my hair even if it’s not.. attached.. right now.." she mutters before hearing his words, eyes narrowing somewhat, lips curling. At least he sort of thought ahead at this point, even if it was only to keep himself out of some pain. 

"Fine, whatever. Just put it back!”

To be entirely fair, Takane's agreement was less than friendly, or agreeable, and more like she was settling for it at the moment. Indigo eyes narrowed, studying her expression for a few brief moments, but after acknowledging that it probably wouldn't switch from its irritable glare into something less intimidating, he decided he may as well just get it over with. He did give her pigtail another stroke, through, just because it bothered her. The wide grin he flashed made that very obvious.

His arm bent in a very particular way when he reached back down--up--over to her head, absent mindedly toying with the so called clasp of the pigtail before he fixed it in place. Kaito gave it a flick, letting the tasselled locks flutter against her neck to hint its reappearance, before he took three strides back, waved, and started down the hallway a little too fast for comfort.

Not his comfort, of course, but that might be disrupted should Takane actually check the condition of 'her' pigtail.

Did Kaito actually carry around multiple pigtails? Yeah, you never knew when you were going to have to use them, and he'd actually prepared for this trick before he met Takane. The poor unfortunate senpai just so happened to have black hair, otherwise he would have targetted a ginger instead - he liked obscene hair colours, after all.

Back to the point. Better get out of the hallway before she figured out her new pigtail was orange.

It didn’t help that Kaito kept adding fuel to the fire, either. Now this shark was a werewolf too? Possibly. A wereshark? When the full moon rose did it have a shark head, human body, and hairy paws for feet? Kaito’s fiance sounded like a freak of nature. A lab experiment gone wrong. And honestly Luca was better off not knowing because if he did know Sal he would have realized it was much worse than that.

"I’m afraid I don’t…follow…" he said slowly. No, this was not a language barrier. This was just Hydread at it’s very finest. "I’ve heard of people having an identity crisis, especially when they’re middle-aged and have grown children, but this just takes the pie." Cake, Luca. But good try.

Luca waved his hands about like he was wiping away the conversation. “I could just make you some bottles when I have enough if you want. I like making them in my spare time. It’s just… very dangerous to be fiddling around with if you haven’t studied the basics of alchemy.” Now that he was thinking it over again, it really wasn’t a good idea. He wasn’t doubting Kaito’s abilities, but alchemy was something mostly common in Regalo. Not even many people from the mainland knew it’s principles. But then there was Nordia…

Was it really legal? No doubt about it, he practically had to live with it! Luca's questioning only made him all the more aware of how strange it was from an outsider's view, because without visual reference, just hearing that someone was engaged to a sea creature was just the cherry on top of the chaotic ice cream tower. It had to be ice cream, because if it wasn't, it just wasn't worth it. There was a silver lining to everything, and his came in the form of having a reason to visit casinos on a regular basis.

If defeat had an onomatopoeia, Kaito would have made a song out of the single component. He just was not sure how to go about this anymore, and if the apparent alchemist couldn't understand his babbling, then maybe he wouldn't be able to make any sense from it either. Acceptance was the best shot he had at growing used to this world, and yet his worst fear was going home at the end of the day to find his husband-to-be occasionally donned a tail and a fin if he didn't warn him of his arrival.

(This sucked essentially because the thief liked to surprise people. There was no rush of satisfaction if the next thing he knew, he was screaming at his worst nightmare.)

Waving his hands back in a mirror-like manner, the brunet shook his head. “I don't really care about the dangers behind it! It sounds like fun, so I wanna try it.” One could probably electrocute him and he'd bounce back up from pure will power alone. Besides, from the sounds of things, this fellow was an entertainer too, so he would have to understand Kaito's interest in the arts, right? Speaking of those arm gestures.

“Oh, that.” A shrug. “It's nothing, I have to use it a lot when I get cuffed--”

Silence.

"It’s not something unique for me. It’s…pretty normal, honestly." He replied to Kaito’s question. Of course it would be for someone whose world is full os the main element to cast artes.

Jude glanced at the other boy as he gives a check on his wrist. Jude could see it looked all right and that ointment did work fine.

For instance, the doctor had stated his type of magic was not unique to him, implying that wherever he was from had adapted this into their culture. It was probably just as ordinary as eating for them, right?

“Magic is common for me.” He accented particularly on his own person, because yes, the magician had in fact come into contact with witches and even his own set of skills fooled the eyes of others, but this was difficult. Although, he had no doubt Akako could heal someone should she feel the need to, but could Lucifer do that...?

"Everyone in the casino are very good talkers, we only aim to give the best night for our customers. People when they play long games of poker are often very tired of intense concentration so dealers must be very good at talking in order for the players to enjoy the game fully."

Or they would be led to rather serious and more darker methods to get the game over with, again he had no intention to speak any further about his ways to change their ways. "It isn’t a bad thing. It means people like your company as so I at the moment." But it also meant he would enjoy crumbling the boy’s impression of him, for the Kaito that was currently viewing of the ‘Sal’ that smiled sweetly to everyone around him. Falsely believing in the lies he fed into his mouth, until he could choke on the lies when his true face would show. Oh how wonderful the sight it would be,

'Y..You lied?' A familiar ring of tone that rang in his memory. Why he remembered Wadanohara's horrified face when it did, he doesn't know. Perhaps it was the fact he did love her to the very end, and even now he wondered. Why did he lose track of the purpose behind his actions? The thought that ran through his mind left a bitter taste of metal (must like his own blood), he truly was like his twin: a pitiful, foolish shark.

Sal's behaviour was not new to the teen, in fact, he'd taken quite a liking to pulling such a routine whenever he could snake himself out of trouble. Previously before they had met, the magician had even entertained the thought, but discarded it for an honest approach (and really, how honest could displaying your worst fear upon sight get?). Truly, he could have persuaded the shark into a myriad of personalities by now, but the catch to wearing a mask was knowing how to spot one, and he'd pleasantly welcomed ignorance up until now. Then again, perhaps he was sceptical of his own paranoia and phobia, far too much to put a name to the albino's behaviour, but if he had to, it would be suspicious.

By the final curtain call, the deed had been appreciated. He would have rathered a clean, tasteless relationship at the beginning than something unreasonably messy, because first impressions could not be revoked. Even in the future, he would probably still remember Sal's pearly white smile and transparent intentions to fool him, but the visual aspect would rule out the mental impression. Kaito could calibrate it all day if he liked, but that was boring. As his father used to say, the stage is much like a warzone; you must read other's minds as if they were a textbook, but that didn't mean he couldn't have fun while he was at it. A grin flickered across his lips and he took great pride in the reception of his company, “You're not that bad yourself, fi~an~ce-san.” It came out like a song, the way he practically sang the relationship status.

But back to fun – man, he loved a challenge. There was nothing better than to hear someone with a bit of a bite in them: but then again, what did he expect from a shark? The dusky streets could barely contain his sunny composure at the reveal, because really, he just so happened to get engaged to a person with a rather good poker face. That would have to go some day, but it was definitely going to propose a heck of a time at a casino.

The point was that Takane really wasn’t appreciating this guy and whatever words were tumbling out of his mouth. Her feeling of ‘why did I ask’ only got worse and worse as he continued, got closer, brown eyes wary as his hand lifted.

Takane really didn’t like where this was going—

What.

She’d definitely felt the tug and though it wasn’t anything that would hurt, the brunette did jerk backwards in surprise, expression more unpleasant than before as she opened her mouth. “What the hell was that fo-” the words cut off.. or, well, choked.. at the sight of her? pigtail? in his hand?

What. What? What??

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?" There wasn’t a person within a miles radius that wouldn’t have heard that. It was shrieked, to say the least. And she really wasn’t the type that liked to intentionally attract attention, but what would you do if you were in this situation.

His smile remained, having frozen in shock.

It was in this moment that Kuroba Kaito decided he had fucked up.

-- Buuuut that didn't stop him from fighting back about the pain she had just inflicted on his ears, or the rest of the student body's hearing.

"What the hell!?" He retorted straight back at her, rubbing his poor lobes. "It's a magic trick, it's not like it's gone-- why'd you have to go screaming like that?!" Like every other teenager who hated being told to do things that they were already planning on doing, he felt as though he should just keep the ponytail! Maybe it would do for a nice earmuff in case she started screaming again like a siren! Did it look like he had a pair of scissors on him?!

"Geez." Yet he conceded defeat, straightening out the bundle of locks. There was nothing fun about making someone angry if they were going to become a personal hazard, and for starters, he hadn't even meant to upset her! Girls and their hair.

...

Do not make me arrest you.

You can't press charges against me for #tags.