A Date Between Friends, co-post from Jen and me.

[Kuro Irotsuya]

Jo was in her element. A new, magical fence cordoned off a good piece of ground as well as part of the lake, having been placed in preparation for the four crates that had only been shipped this morning now standing empty within it. The Care of Magical Creatures professor had set to the process of opening the crates and letting their rather shaken passengers come out into daylight almost before daylight had come and with a vigor that can only come of an early morning in chilly spring weather. One by one, slightly nervous animals had slipped out of the crates, all in different forms. One had been obvious in its horse shape, but the other three were unrecognizable as anything other than a river otter, a squirrel, and a stag.

Jo had spent the morning coaxing each into their most natural form, which was as individual to each as any human’s fingerprint, and then proceeded to check over each one for injuries, illness, or other things that would need to be remedied before she could show them to a class, which was all quite a chore given that she had to keep an immobilization charm on each of them that had to be refreshed every little while as they all tried shifting to different forms in order to break loose, and that it is hard to concentrate when the animal you’re checking is at one time a deer and the next instant, a mouse. Jo had to admit surprise that they all seemed to have such a large repertoire of forms, but she thanked the stars they could only apparently choose from native European animals rather than some of the larger marine or African critters.

It was getting quite warm by the time she was satisfied that they were all in good condition and healthy, finally levitating the crates back outside the pen and setting out food for the creatures. No doubt about it, it had been a wonderful morning, but Jo reckoned it was one of the busiest she'd had in awhile. Smiling quietly to herself, she sat on the top of the fence, watching the four explore their new environment.


Spring! It stirred his senses, made his heart even lighter, and buoyed his personality even more, though some would argue that was impossible even for the perpetually cheerful Transfiguration teacher. But there Kuro was, skipping -yes, skipping- down the path, swinging a picnic basket in one hand while the other waved his wand in the air, smoothly levitating a bottle of sparkling cider. And to top it off, he was singing "Mystic Eyes" from "Tenkuu no Escaflowne", completely cementing the image that for now, spring had made Kuro completely nuts.

Finishing the last words and humming the ending chords, the kitsune bounced around the turn in the path and alighted on one of Jo's fenceposts with a little hope and twirl. "Konbonwaaaaaa, Jo-saaaaan!" he sang brightly.

"A beautiful morning to you, Kuro-san," she returned cheerfully, offering him a grin before turning her gaze back to the newest additions to her curriculum. "Enjoying the sun?"

Kuro blinked, walking along the top of the fence to come closer to the other teacher. "Morning? Jo-san, it's one thirty-seven in the afternoon," he pointed out. "You must have been very absorbed in your work." He smiled and waved to the creatures not far away. "You're really dedicated.”

"Afternoon already? Gosh, no wonder I'm all tuckered out." One of the critters, for the moment a fine roe buck, snorted at Kuro's movement and dashed to the far boundary of the enclosure, pulling up sharply before meeting with the fence. Jo smiled. "They're a bit skittish. Wild critters usually are, but they'll tame down well enough to show the high school classes at least, I think."

"I'm sorry," Kuro apologized, losing a little of his buzz. His "high" had made him forget some common sense and the knowledge that he usually frightened animals. "I hope they will forgive me later." Stepping off the fence, he wagged the picnic basket enticingly in Jo's direction. "Care to join me for lunch?"

"No worries, mate. They're just fresh from their homeland and nervous about everything. I doubt your being who you are had much to do with it," Jo replied, slipping down off the fence, squinting at the bars of the barrier a moment to be sure the charms had held, needing to be satisfied by the presence of a light blue glow before looking toward the sound of a number of things being shaken slightly. She'd done her homework and, as they were alone with no danger of being overheard, she saw no reason he shouldn't know what she understood. In any case, it didn't matter - being who she was, Jo thought it a mighty fine thing to know a kitsune personally and appreciated the opportunity for what it was. "I'd love to take you up on that; as I recall, you're a better cook than I'll ever be, so I'll not look a gift horse in the mouth- or kelpie, for that matter. That's what these are, by the way," she grinned at him, thoroughly pleased with the new additions to her menagerie, temporary though they were.

"Kelpies!" Kuro was definitely surprised. "I'm impressed. Would you believe I have never run into one, not even in all my trips to their homes?"

"Really? Well, they can be pretty secretive. The fact you've never seen one in the wild just means one's never had it out for you, which is a good thing. They generally only show themselves to people they intend to drown."

"Note to self: Bribe these fellows with carrots as often as possible," the kitsune remarked, and held out his arm. "Shall we?"

Jo looked at him, suddenly a bit doubtful. "Shouldn't I go get cleaned up a bit? I've been uncrating and doctoring all morning."

“If you wish, but only if you promise not to dilly-dally-shilly-shally and forget your poor old fox, faithfully waiting by the koi pond," her fellow teacher teased.

Jo grinned. "Won't be two shakes!" she promised, turning and jogging back across the grounds toward her quarters.

[Kuro Irotsuya]

Within the space of ten minutes, Jo came to the koi pond, a bit breathless but much cleaner now than she had been. "This was a real sweet idea of yours, Kuro- you don't mind if I just call you Kuro, do you? You can call me just plain 'Jo' if you like."

"Then I will," Kuro said, and passed Jo a small thermos, stretching his arm over some plates of non-Japanese food to do so. "Lemonade?" he asked, eyes twinkling.

She accepted it happily, finding a pair of cups in the basket and filling them both, handing one back to Kuro and taking a sip. "It's very good. Just tart enough to bring out the flavor of the sugar," she grinned.

"Excellent! My memory served me correctly after all," the other teacher said, quite pleased with himself to the point of smugness. He toasted Jo with his little cup and had a swallow of the liquid himself, licking his lips slowly to savor the taste. "So how on earth did you get kelpies here?" he asked, picking up a sandwich that looked like a BLT. "You must have some strong connections in customs."

Her eyes glimmered at him rather saucily. "Only I know for sure of all my connections, and even I might not be all so certain." She found another sandwich that looked the same, pulling out the tomato slices and eating them separately before biting into the rest of it, ignoring any strange looks she may have gotten in the process. "In any case, I had them sent by a friend of mine via portkey from Scotland."

"Oh, portkeys." Kuro made a face. "I hate those things. They always give me travel-sickness. I have a strong stomach, thankfully, but that doesn't mean I'll be enjoying the trip through a portkey any time soon."

Jo shrugged. "I generally don't like to transport my critters that way... no way of knowing how it feels to them, really, but I had to get them all here more or less at once and as quickly as possible. It was also a good bit cheaper and had less of a risk to them than anything else I could have picked." She found a dish of something that looked like sushi with carrots, avocado, olives, and a few other things in it that all smelled marvelous, and eagerly tried one. "That's one thing I've liked a lot about traveling: So many different kinds of food to try out."

The kitsune nodded agreement. "And drinks," he said with a chuckle. "I'm afraid I'm a little too fond of the alcohol I've found around the world, though it takes a lot to make me drunk. I don't suppose you have a favorite brew?" He shrugged and fished a bowl from the basket, still steaming: It was a peculiar mix, miso soup with udon noodles, cuts of chicken and slices of aburage. But he dug into it with relish.

[Kuro Irotsuya]

(OOC: More To Come.)

The Kiwi smiled, "Well, I do like a beer now and then, but more often, I like Irish coffee. Must be a harkening back to my European roots or some such."

"Oh, you mean coffee with Irish cream? Never really got into that." Kuro shrugged. "Call me weird, but straight coffee is much nicer, in my opinion."

"Well, aye, you can have it with Irish cream if you like, but mostly it's just good strong coffee and sugar with Irish whiskey and double cream whipped just a bit stiff on top. It's an awfully good thing on a cold day."

"I'll bet. That makes the fur on my ears vibrate just thinking about it." Kuro shrugged. "For cold days, I go with warm milk with cinnamon and honey, or hot chocolate with caramel. I picked that up from an American friend in.... Rhode Island? Yes, there. Sweet woman."

"Sounds wonderful. I was never much a one for warm milk, but with cinnamon and honey, I imagine it would be much different. Not so sure about the cocoa, but I'd be willing to try that sometime too." She finished her sandwich and began to turn her attention to the rest of the food, along with another piece of sushi. She'd skipped breakfast, having run a bit late that morning before the kelpies were shipped and finding herself with a ravenous appetite at the moment.

Kuro made no comment about his friend's eating; as a kitsune, he normally had a large appetite himself, to supplement his energy between times he could find a willing "energy donor". That, and food was just plain fun. So many flavors and textures to delight the senses and palate!

"So who did you bribe to let you raid the kitchens?" she asked with a rather mischievous look.

"No one," Kuro said with as much innocence as possible, and grinned. "I actually Transfigured my ramen here, but the rest is my secret."

"Uh-huh...." Jo frowned slightly, watching him closely as if to divine the answer from his eyes, but just as quickly shrugged it off - it didn't really matter, after all. "Anyway, do you think I oughtta name the kelpies?"

"Huh?" The fox was surprised. "Well.... I don't know. I guess it depends on how long they'll be staying, and if they don't have their own names."

"Well, they're not sentient if that's what you mean. Not like people or house elves or centaurs. They're a helluva lot smarter than most critters, but still just critters, and I got 'em shipped from a refuge in Scotland. They have numbers, but not names." The Kiwi shrugged, "They'll probably be staying the rest of the month."

[Kuro Irotsuya]

Kuro looked at the clouds contemplatively. "If you name them, you might get attached," he reasoned, "but if it helps tell them apart, try it."

"True enough. Hardly ever met a critter I couldn't fall in love with. I draw the line at some of the more vicious ones, of course. Kelpies aren't vicious though... drowning folk's just a defense mechanism. Means they've gotten too close to a breeding pond or a stretch of beach with a den. But these guys I know have to go back where they came from, so I don't think attachment's a danger."

"Sou da ne. Name away," the kitsune told her with a grin. "More lemonade?"

"Sure," Jo handed her cup over. "Beautiful afternoon for this, it was a good idea, Kuro."

"I'm glad you could join me." Kuro refilled the cup and passed it back. "I like to know my friends can relax sometimes."

"It's certainly a good feeling sometimes," she agreed, accepting the cup and taking a sip before lying back on the blanket. "Ever looked for pictures in the clouds? Today's a day for it if ever I saw one." The sky vaulted overhead, deep and blue with clouds floating by slowly in big puffs and smaller wisps here and there, perfect for cloud-watching.

"Lots of times," Kuro said, finishing his ramen and also lying down. "I swear I once saw a cloud that looked like a fruit parfait."

"I saw one that looked an awful lot like a bicycle not too long ago."

"That must have been the result of one heck of a storm."

"Nah, it was just a little wispy thing way up high."

[Kuro Irotsuya]

"Ah, my mista- oh, look there." Kuro pointed down to the left. "That one looks like Garfield."

Jo grinned. "Sure does. That little one there looks a bit like Woodstock from the Peanuts strips."

"You sure?" Kuro tilted his head sideways. "Oh, you're right." He righted himself and nodded, lifting a hand and making a waving motion. For a moment the clouds changed, becoming a forest by a river, where a horse stood drinking before the cloudscape returned to normal.

"Mmm.... nice work. Don't need a wand for everything, then, eh?" she asked, pulling her wand out of her pocket and aiming it at the sky to change the clouds briefly into the image of a crashing wave on a beach.

"No, not everything." The fox let his hand fall to rest near Jo's, a friendly gesture more than anything. "That was some great detail there."

Jo sighed softly, content in the company she shared. "Feels good to slow down on a warm afternoon. Sometimes I feel like all I do is run, lookin' after my menagerie and plannin' out classes. Busy life these days. Wish I were still a student now and then. Less to worry about."

"Really?" Kuro turned on his side to look at her. "I was never a conventional student. What's it like?"

Jo shrugged, looking over at him. "Nothin' much to worry about besides assignments and end of term exams, holidays off, most of the things you need provided by the school; but most of all, you're always learning new stuff. There's always something out there you haven't been shown yet, always something new to try and master, always a professor trying to get you to prove to yourself that you can do more than you give yourself credit for. It's a good, safe time generally speaking."

The other teacher smiled. "That's a lot like what I went through growing up." He shrugged. "No schedules or anything, of course, but very similar. And I had so much fun learning it all."

"My dad always says 'education never stops'. I know what he means now that I've been all over learning about magical critters, and I'm glad he's right."

"Your dad is right." Kuro turned onto his back again, staring into the sky. "I think I'd be bored very easily if there was ever a time when learning ended."

"Study anything in particular?" Jo asked, frowning slightly in thought before changing a particularly large cloud into a spouting whale for a moment.

"No, just whatever caught my fancy."

"How about these days? Still pretty eclectic?"

"No, these days I usually have to focus on matters concerning Transfiguration, but it's not boring. I'm really enjoying myself here," Kuro explained with a grin.

"Glad to hear it. I like it here too, even if my language skills aren't coming along as well as I'd like yet." Jo shrugged good-naturedly.

"They will. You're a very dedicated learner, I can tell. So you have nothing to worry about," the fox praised.

[Kuro Irotsuya]

"Well, I try. That's about all I can say about it," she shrugged. "How do you get along with your students?"

"They love me," Kuro chortled. "It's a real delight to open their minds to magic. What about you?"

Jo smiled. She could definitely imagine his students adoring the rather effervescent qualities of Kuro's personality, or at the very least finding them entertaining. "Care of Magical Creatures really ought to be an advanced class... Most of my students either love it or hate it. I think I'm generally pretty well received as a professor though, except maybe by one or two."

"Like Sasaki?"

Jo looked over at Kuro. "Perceptive.... and yeah, I guess I had him more or less specifically in mind."

"I have trouble with him too." Kuro just shrugged. "There are always kids like him."

"True enough, but few students are willing to directly stand up to a professor. He seems to be in a rare minority as far as that goes."

"Point." The fox chuckled. "Maybe he just doesn't worry about consequences enough."

"I've already had to give him detention once. He hasn't really tried anything since then, so I hold out hope that he's changed some, but my gut tells me it's just him keeping out of trouble and not any real difference. In any case, it's not worth fretting over; the only one that can change him is himself, ultimately."

"That's very true. So it is for anyone." He paused. "This took a very Zen turn," he said with a chuckle.

Jo laughed. "So it did, but then, much of anything dealing with self-determination has that potential."

"True, again."


**************


"Thank you so much for honoring me with your company," Kuro said as he escorted Jo to her home in the early evening.

"It was a pleasure, and I could hardly refuse such a wonderful way of spending the afternoon," she replied with a smile, unlocking her door and opening the door a ways. "Thank you."

"The pleasure was mine, naturally," the fox easily returned, grinning charmingly.

"Care to come in? Supper could be a fair exchange for lunch, not that I'm the world's greatest cook, mind you." It was an honest, open invitation and it showed in her eyes. She'd hold no grudge if he refused and no expectations if he accepted.

[Kuro Irotsuya]

Kuro seemed to light up. "I'd be glad to!" he said happily, and stepped across the threshold. "Good to know you don't tire of my company after prolonged contact," he joked.

"Hardly," she grinned. "I like people as well as I like my critters; it's just that my critters take up a lot of my time. I miss people." She closed the door behind them both and looked around, taking stock of what she could see of her living area. Everything seemed in place except for a small stack of books strewn on the floor near a tall standing bookcase. "The kneazles've been at their reading again.... not a one in sight though. Must be all off sleeping under my bed again or keeping the kittens company. The griffin there by the fireplace is Myka." At the mention of her name, the regal beast lifted her falcon-like head and blinked sleepily at Kuro before curling up again to go back to sleep.

Kuro let out the breath he'd held at the word "griffin". "Whew," he said quietly, setting his picnic basket aside. "You have a very cozy home," he remarked, clasping his hands behind his back as he looked around.

"There's a lot to see, feel free to poke around some if you like. Never know where you'll find a puffskein cage or somesuch. And don't worry, Myka's the biggest thing I own, and she won't bite. You won't find any kappa here either," she added with a slight smile.

That made the kitsune laugh heartily, and he did poke around some, after hanging up his haori.

"The puffskeins are probably some of my cutest tenants," Jo mused, pointing out the cage full of sleeping balls of fur. "For awhile when I was a teenager, I had a fwooper, but my folks made me get rid of it when they got tired of always casting silencing charms on it. Rather partial to birds- I guess that's why I like griffins so much. Myka there is a North American, part cougar, part falcon."

"And truly magnificent," Kuro noted, appreciating Myka's splendor. Too bad the griffin wasn't awake to hear it. A little flattery was not uncalled for in this case.

"She is, isn't she?" Jo had to agree, watching the sleeping creature with a fond expression. "Had to jump through a lot of hoops to get her here; all kinds of exporting and importing permits through the Ministries of both countries. Oh well, it got done." She shrugged and moved to a large couch, settling down on it comfortably. "Hope you don't mind fur everywhere."

"Me?" Kuro literally barked a laugh. "Good one," he said cheerfully, moving to sit next to the Care teacher.

"Hm, true enough," Jo chuckled at her own slip-up. "Guess that wouldn't be much of a problem for you, would it? So, got any hobbies other than transfiguring food?"

“Oh, I like dancing and a good read sometimes, taking walks, intelligent conversation, and pranks. I love a well-planned prank once in a while,” Kuro said instantly. “Rather like Koujin-kun in that regard, I suppose.” He straightened a seam in his hakama before continuing. "I also enjoy just the physical side of life: Feeling the wind in my hair, eating good food, touching, that sort of thing."

Naturally, that lead from one topic to the next, and the Transfiguration teacher ended up staying for dinner as the two of them talked long into the night.