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[ God. He was banking on Maverick getting flustered about it, but he really is adamantly against any notion of him being lovable, isn't he?! But it doesn't work and all Kano can do is stand there in defeat as Maverick has the time of his life. Terrible, awful, but a little part of him is happy for Maverick anyways. ]

I'm going to stab you with my waffle cone, Mav. Why can't you just let me pretend to be in love with you and let's not talk about this crush I may or may not have.

[He snickers some more, but you know what? That's good enough for him and possibly as close as he was going to get to the truth, so he goes over and throws an arm around Kano's shoulder.]

Sure thing, babe~ Let's go get you a nice, sharp waffle cone.

With sprinkles. I'm devastated now, Mav, so you're obligated to comfort me.

[ He hates himself so much, hates those arms around his shoulders, so he's going to wrap an arm around Maverick's waist and push out the bathroom door just like this, sorry all you McDonald's employees for having to see this. ]

Yeah, yeah. With sprinkles. Just lemme get most of this beer out of the way so we can get going and get you some proper sprinkles, okay?

[Ah, this has been such a nice boost to his energy again, outside perception of what this probably looks like be damned.]

Okay...

[ It really is exhausting being around Maverick, but at least he gets ice cream out of this, and— fingers crossed for a toy car or something. But also real sprinkles!! If they buy a whole tube of it in a grocery store somewhere, Kano can just dump sprinkles down his throat and not bother with the ice cream. ]

...You won't tell Nana-chan about this, right? You and me??

[Awh. That's so cute. He's worried about his crush finding out.]

We-ell... They say having some secrets can keep things spicy. I guess I could keep this whole conversation between just us.

[What happens at McDonalds stays at McDonalds.]

[ Nana believes he likes bees. It can only go up from there, but he also doesn't need any of this at all! None of this having crushes thing!! ]

If you tell her, it'd get her hopes up, right? Bad idea, Mav. Don't do that to her.

[A little part of his brain considers how sad, but also good, it is that Kano has enough self-esteem to say it would get her hopes up. Then again, he's a really good faker, usually... Hm. Time to go back to ignoring that little part of his brain, and ruffle Kano's hair before finally releasing him.]

Seriously, cricket, lighten up. I already agreed! These lips are sealed. Unless you, like, really fucking want me to blackmail you, or if you make it excruciatingly painful to see the two of you side by side because you still. Haven't. Fucking. Said. Anything. Oh, there's our food! Must've got tired of calling out the number and just left it out.

[ His hair, ugh! Instead of fixing the mess Maverick made, Kano just pulls his hood over his head and lets himself hide in the darkness, bounding over to the counter to first lick at the melting ice cream cone that's dripping everywhere, and second to root through the paper bag to see what toy he's gotten. ]

You're not saying anything and I'm not ever going to either, 'cause that's a bad idea! Like I said, right? Nothing's going to—- ...oh, hell, no...

[ No........

New things I'm learning about McDonald's in France, sometimes instead of a toy, you get a book with your Happy Meal and instead of a new Hot Wheels car, Kano finds an illustrated children's picture book on fables sitting underneath the bag. ]

Here, you can have it. For your book club.

[He looks up from where he's getting his things separated and rolling his eyes about Kano's stupid instructions, instead propping his chin on his palm and giving a wide smile. Something wrong, cricket? Whatever could it be? Your order was correct, right? You got exactly what you'd asked for...

With a laugh, he waves the book off and returns his attention to the drinks.]

You're in the club, too, dumbass. Besides, it's closer to your level, right?

[ It's a flimsy, thin paperback book, but he swats Maverick's arm with it anyways. ]

French reading level, maybe!! [ In the four years he's been here... he can barely read, yeah, this is about his level and he hates to admit it. ]

Alright, alright, book club time! Go on and sit down so I can read to you about the tortoise and the hare!

[This is another reason the book club exists... Just let him help out, kid.]

Uh-huh. We'll read it, and beat it right after to get your sprinkles.

[He will sit, body language much more relaxed, and start in on drink number one. Go on, now.]

[ He doesn't need French speaking lessons when he's got an auto-translator!! Conversationally, he's fine, but when it comes to reading... too many weird accent marks, English doesn't have fancy accent marks and he hates these.

He settles into his own seat with the book on his lap and hopefully Maverick will soon be drunk enough to excuse his French— not terrible, but definitely spoken slowly and haltingly like a student learning a foreign language. ]

Rien ne sert de courir; il faut partir à point! Le lièvre et la tortue en sont un témoignage.
"Gageons, dit celle-ci, que vous n’atteindrez point sitôt que moi ce but."
"–Sitôt? Êtes-vous sage?"

[ He is going to suffer through every line of this book and Maverick has to suffer listening to him. ]

[If anything, he sobers up a little... How long has Kano been in this country again, muddling through written shit like this? He doesn't comment through the first beer or the second, going through them fairly quickly, but as he sets that one down, he leans forward a little.]

This isn't me being an asshole, it's a genuine fucking question. You got any learning disabilities, or some shit? Dyslexia, anything?

[ Reading out loud is genuinely a terrible task. It's so much different from reading in your head, or speaking ad-lib, neither of which he thinks he'd have quite as bad a problem with, except the process becomes disjointed when he's made to read words off a page. Is this something he could have gotten used to if he'd suffered through years of recitations in a classroom? Probably. But as it is, he just squints at Maverick over the top of the book. ]

Non. Can't you just accept that I'm dumb?

[sighhh.]

Non. Tu n'es pas stupide.

[He says this matter-of-factly, also I've just never mentioned how Mav doesn't sound particularly French unless he's speaking it, on account of Ramona being his primary conversational partner that raised him and from the States, but that's a thing.]

Means I don't got anything that might help you, though. Only a good trick for assholes with dyslexia and ADHD.

[ He sits up a little straighter at that, not wanting to get his hopes up, but also, he just sort of denied learning disabilities out of the principle of the thing. Maverick can't honestly believe Kano knows what dyslexia or ADHD really is, besides something like mixing up b's and d's, and being distractable, both things that are very reasonable in his opinion. ]

What's the trick? I want to see it anyways!! Show me, show me~

[As Maverick just said, he doesn't think Kano is stupid! He has no idea what the kid does or doesn't know... When prompted, however, he rolls his eyes and leans closer so he can put his finger against the book. Instantly, the ink begins to change color -- but not all of it, not solidly. It's a gradient, a fluid transition where the sentence starts in black ink, shifts to blue, followed by brown, gold, back to black, and repeating.]

It's supposed to make it all not run together, or something, and having a color order makes your eyes wander less.

[ The extent of Kano's knowledge is a good question; whatever he can learn off magazines and television and internet, I guess— and this is a bit like that, the bright flashy eye-catching colors used in magazines, separated into parts like scrolling subtitles on the tv, and internet because he has to pick the book up for a second to remind himself that it isn't a tablet screen he's looking at but still paper. ]

Eh... Does that make it easier? What about textbooks where it's a whole wall of text and it's tiny and the letters all look the same? You know how when you read a line and then your eyes go back to the other side to read the next line, but then you miss and land on the same line you just read?? And then you read the same thing over five times???

[ That sort of problem... it's a problem ]

[...okay, so. Kano lied. or just...genuinely didn't think he'd had a problem, which he could also believe, sadly. It really is...depressing, thinking of it like that.]

Yeah. It's hard to show with short-ass sentences like this shit, but...that's the idea. I mean, I can't fucking make words bigger, or change their shape much. Just colors.

[Hm... Tough to explain when he doesn't have something he can use as a proper visual.]

It's like... The first line starts out black, right? But then it goes into blue -- so your second line starts out blue. You follow the fucking color progression. They make fonts that make the shapes of letters more recognizable, but fuck your bitch eyes, learn to suffer with standard textbook bullshit, I guess. Shit's so fucking stupid.

[ It's not a problem if it doesn't inconvenience him, and it doesn't inconvenience him when he places zero importance on school in the first place, easy. Making words bigger, changing the font so he can pick letter out more easily, those are all things so easy for him to do— colors too, if he ever had the means to realize that could help. This is such a solvable problem... but he doesn't care and doesn't want to care, flipping the storybook closed and shoving fries into his mouth instead. ]

You'd think in a magic school, it'd be different huh? We're the technological age! They should be able to beam info directly into our heads.

[ Why can't Michael be a daemon of education instead of one of mischief, he already pops into his through unsolicited and never to whisper him exam answers. ]

[It's ridiculous to feel disappointed by Kano's dismissal of the book, and he knows that, but a small part of him still is anyway. That had been the attitude he'd had all through his prior schooling -- but he already knows Kano doesn't like to read, doesn't enjoy books, and doesn't seek out new, random information. There's no reason he would have had the same, eye-opening punch to the gut of finding something you genuinely like just because some idiot made it look prettier.

It was a good feeling. He wishes Kano knew it, too.]

Why would it be different? Magic's just about the most ancient-ass shit there is. Pretty sure I don't want some direct line into my fucking head, either.

[ He might like books if they're on things that matter or are interesting to him, but finding something that matters or is interesting is sort of where he's stuck at, reaching over to take Maverick's third can of beer if he's not going to finish it. ]

Hm, maybe~ But it's like intrusive thoughts into your head, 'cept you can tune them out, right? Like how you can tune me out, but you don't, but you could— but anyways, it would be useful! Maybe you can't relate, because you understand things when you hear them without having to overthink it?

[Excuse you, he had a total of four. But honestly, yeah, take his half-done third can so he can start in on that fourth while he contemplates it's kinda odd that Kano knows what intrusive thoughts are, all things considered. Not good.]

You have a lot of faith in my ability to tune you out.

[And very little faith in how much Mav shies away from the strange or things to do with his own mental health.]

Edited 2019-03-20 23:17 (UTC)

[ Kano, at six years old, Googling "Are these voices in my head real or am I possessed by a demon?" except he's possessed by a demon. ]

Can't resist the siren song of my voice, can you~?

[ He tilts the can far enough that he can stick his tongue inside, make a face at the taste, and give it back to Maverick. Nothing two scoops of vanilla ice cream can't solve, but they'll have to reorder more ice cream for that. ]

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also I disco'd you unimportant stuff

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