A Lunch Session

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Fifteen years without playing music - it sounded like a laughable lie. Perhaps not of the malicious kind, but of the 'I'm making up unbelievable excuses to cover up my lack of skill' variety. Owen himself was familiar with that kind.

But he digressed, and didn't press on the subject with anything more than an offhanded chuckle. Now there was a different priority on hand - lunch.
He entered the kitchen, in the mood for something nice, yet at the same time, not in the mood to spend much time or effort on a dish. He stood, slightly torn, before eventually succumbing to laziness. Wandering towards the cupboards, he trifled through them for a bit. They were always filled with so much crap that disinterested him, all these herbs and spices and condiments... Would it kill for simplicity? He grabbed a breadstick from a box, and idly gnawed on the end as he searched for something a bit more filling.

Suddenly, he seemed to remember about Shae, and glanced towards the door to see if he was still there.
"What're you getting?" he'd ask.

Well now he had to actually pretend he wanted to eat- a slight problem, because this had been his idea.
He sighed slightly and checked in some cupboards idly, looking for something he wouldn't be putting any effort into.
At all. And no effort into eating it either.

He wasn't seeing much, until he spotted a try of inconspicuous brown somethings.
Further inspection showed them to be muffins of some kind.
They weren't his, no- but if someone wanted them to stay uneaten, they should have hidden them better.

He casually picked one up and took a bite, not bad. It tasted soft and sweet.
"Muffin" he offered nonchalantly.

There was nothing. Nothing that interested him. Maybe the academy had learnt better than to leave the best stuff where it was easy to find. Maybe someone else had gotten in first. Maybe there was none at all. These days, he really couldn't tell.

But at the word, he turned his head, stopping everything that he was in the process of doing.
...Muffins? Someone had left out muffins? Well. It sucked to be them.
"Dude! Dun' hog them all, you greedy ass," he said, barging over with the full intention to shove Shae out of the way. Then, he'd yoink out one-- no, two. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if Shae had pulled some sort of saliva prank... before deciding that he didn't really care either way, chewing into one.
"D'you fink shomeone'll notish?" he asked, voice muffled by the snack. Though really, he didn't seem worrie at all - it was intended casually.

He was a bit surprised by Owens eagerness but it didn't bother him as much as simply amuse him. He was bumped a bit and then he just stepped out of the way. Sure why not? He chuckled.
"Who cares- it's a free kitchen they shoulda put them away somewhere otherwise..."

He took another bite of his own, not so eager as Owen of course though, just casually taking small bites here and there.
It tasted nice though at least, which couldn't always be said of food. Often it was tasteless even- what was the point of eating tasteless food when you don't need to eat? For social standards he guessed. Boriiiing.

Either way there was fun to be had here yet. "I wonder if someone cooked them or if they were brought... or conjured- you really never know at this place."

He mumbled agreement to Shae as he nom'd on the muffin. He liked the way he thought, anyway.

It was his latter comment that made him raise his brows. He looked to the muffin in his hands, then back to Shae, then back to the muffin. Then slowly, he gulped. "Conjured, like magic?" He frowned at the thought. "Whut if... If they enchanted them or somethin'? What if they--"

He was suddenly cut off as he started gagging on the muffin. Loud gasps escaped him as he clutched at his throat, the muffins tumbling to the floor as he did so. His eyes went wide as he stared desperately to the other boy, outstretching a trembling hand in silent agony.
He lasted but a few seconds more before he doubled over, before finally collapsing to the floor - face down, and completely still.

Shae was amused further at first by Owens sudden misgivings- it had been rather an intended reaction.
He was about to reply in his casually sarcastic tone when Owen fell to the floor, cutting his smile short- turning into more a look of quiet surprise.
Oh, well that was.

He contemplated reaching down, but he didn't get a chance to do so as it wasn't long before the other boy was lying silently on the floor. Oh.
Slowly he looked at his own muffin, before setting back down on the bench. He felt fine though.
More than concerned for this persons health he was more intrigued and slightly apprehensive.
After all he'd been eating them as well- and he didn't want to be found guilty of murdering a fellow student, even if he hadn't, he wondered if they would believe that. He'd been far to good to have his run ruined now by this.

But what to do? He stood there beside the collapsed body, thinking. CPR? he didn't really know it.. didn't look like he had choked anyway.
What to do indeed.

He lay on the floor, not doing much else except for... Well, breathing. One sign that he was still kinda sort of alive. That, and the fact that his fingers twitched ever so slightly.

As the boy debated on what to do, the silence remained. His face was completely covered by a stay arm that happened to land in precisely the right position. The rest of his limbs were splayed haphazardly and with little coordination. Not that one could coordinate much while they were unconscious.

All was still...
But after a while, his chest started to move. If one listened closely, they might hear a snicker - a snicker that was having trouble being contained.

He let out a small 'hmm' and nudged Owens body fairly gently with a foot.
Well he was breathing, so he was alive.
It seemed anyway.
He was also twitching- unconscious?

Shae nudged him again a bit harder this time in the arm. This didn't make much sense- after all he felt fine still, what were the odds...
Odd. That's what they were.

He was pretty sure the guy was unconscious but it didn't help to check..
"Well.. I guess I've found myself some REAL lunch then, excellent.."
He didn't expect a reply- he was almost jesting to himself. He was the kind of person who could jest when someone had just collapsed in front of them, easily.

The snickering increased in volume, and he struggled to muffle himself after a foot nudged him. He kept cracking up, until the second nudge came and he forced himself limp, and managing to keep the snickers under control.

Did... Did he actually...? Or...?
Owen had little intention of replying to the remark, but it did strike his curiosity. But he wasn't sure if Shae still believed the little sham, given that no one should be that casual around the supposed dead.
...Then again, there was Rein.

Carefully, he adjusted his arm, as to not show too much movement, but to at least allow an opening to peer at Shae from the crack.

Shae didn't mean to look like he was actually contemplating eating Owen- but he was contemplating Owen, so that's what it looked like.
Standing still, hips leaned slightly to one side.
A hand at his mouth, that arm leaning on his other, as he looked down in consideration.

So if he was unconscious did that mean he should be getting medical help? or magical help? Perhaps those things were one and the same in this place.
Hmm. He cocked his head to one side. "I wonder if anyone would notice if he just disappeared..."
The question was again referring to Owens current predicament, he barely even realized how well it followed in with his previous statement.

Well, gee. Owen knew that if one day, he just suddenly dropped dead, that this was probably the kind of sympathy he'd get at his funeral. Wouldn't he even just pretend to be sad, just for him? He'd impressed himself so much with his acting skills that such a casual reaction was a little bit of a let-down.

He stopped looking at him, not wanting to break the pose yet. A table leg suddenly became the most interesting thing in the world to stare at.

He was dying (almost literally, if he said so himself) to know what Shae meant by that little statement of his. Was he going to do something...? He stayed still to find out, preparing himself to drop the act if it ended up... Well, he didn't want to think about it too much.

He decided he needed a closer look- there was breathing and twitching, he could see that.
But a closer look was needed to tell excactly how bad it was, he supposed.
So he knelt down beside the immobile body.

"Hmm.." He didn't seem to be in a bad way by any outward appearance that Shae could tell, in fact he still thought he might be acting- it had been very convenient after all, the timing of such. Perhaps further 'testing' was in order to see if he was actually alright or not.
"Should I move him I wonder, this is quite a predicament." He feigned a slight frown and poked the boys side. "Would be worth it though... I ate the other day in the village, and someones bound to notice if a student disappears.. pity." He was still half doing it just to amuse himself, imagine actually EATING someone after you killed them... weird. Corpses were pretty but they weren't food.

"Maybe just a bite.. no one needs to know HOW it happened if he loses an arm..."

As Shae got closer, Owen knew that he would need to step up his acting. He might be able to get away with mistakes from a distance, but now he needed to be extra careful. It took all of his self control not to cringe as his side was poked.

It was bizarre how Shae narrated his every action - suspicious, almost. Owen was willing to wager that he might be acting too; but that did not mean that he was about to give up. In fact, it had turned it into a sort of competition to see who'd crack first. And Owen accepted it.

He couldn't stop his eye slightly widening as Shae contemplated... eating... Eww.
Yet a morbid curiosity remained - would he really? Would he actually try to gnaw off his arm? It wasn't that Owen actually wanted to lose an limb, but he sure as hell wanted to see what he'd do. For kicks.

The boy wasn't flinching, or moving- but perhaps he was simply too smart to.
He must be suspicious himself, Shae thought to himself- at least if that was the case it would make more sense than him being unconscious.
Perhaps a new tactic.

".... I.. huh- out cold.." he sighed to himself as though finally accepting that this was the case. "But from a muffin, really? Some sort of spell..... no..."
he pretended to be scoffing at an idea he had had to himself. "That would be stupid..... but.. well... I don't REALLY want to have to explain what happened..."
He continued to look thoughtful for a second then whatever his idea was it appeared he'd decided it was worth a try. Heck if this boy was really unconscious maybe it WAS worth a try. After all it seemed to in all the fairy tales.

He shrugged to himself in a 'can't hurt' fashion and then began leaning down towards Owens face.
Why not after all?

What... What was he doing? It was becoming increasingly difficult to remain so still - those unreachable itches that kept popping up, the urge to just move an arm that was twisted uncomfortably. There was no reason, other than a cheeky stubbornness not to lose. Heck, did he really even need any other reason?

He could feel Shae's face nearing, was he...?
No.
Oh no.
Putting the challenge aside, he didn't want to get into that kind of deal.

His eyes flying wide open, he twisted around, flailing out a hand that he aimed to press directly into the other boy's face, an attempt to push it far away from his own.
"I dun' think so!" he snapped, a look of irritation forming on his face. Gross.

Shae fell back laughing as he did so- he had been right all along.. of course he had.
His amusement was endless. He leant back on his elbows head back as he expressed this amusement very obviously.
And as he did so, for a little added fun- he let himself discretely become less of himself and more, well- herself.
Discrete enough so the change wouldn't seem like a change- but noticeable enough that it could be noticed.

He- or she, didn't stop laughing either. Sitting up a bit, turning to look at Owen- and then lapsing back into mirthful chuckling.
People could be so fun sometimes- even when you were letting them live.

Stop--- stop laughing! What was so funny anyway? In fact, Owen was so sure that he'd managed to evade humiliation, not ignite it. Yet every moment of his amusement was another moment of torture for the boy.

Grinding his teeth, he pushed himself up, latching onto the kitchen table to find himself something. He didn't know what, maybe a frying pan or something to thwack him with and make him shut up--

He found a spatula, which at this point, would really have to do. Turning back towards the boy, he was moments from making a threatening approach, when he noticed that there was something distinctly... off about him. He could quite put his finger on it, but he also lost his enthusiasm to beat him senseless. He peered harder.
Then it hit him.

"What the ffhh-?!"
He stumbled backwards, the table being the only thing that stopped him from falling over completely. With wide eyes, he stared at this... this thing in front of him. "What are you?" he croaked, his voice escalating to a whine.

Her chuckling had just begun to subside as she sat up when Owen noticed well.. her.
And as he stumbled back, once more incredulous- she could hardly stop her laughter from reanimating itself and continuing- though she did try to contain it as best she could.

"haha.. ha- oh dear Owen, you are a lot of f-fun..." she giggled. What was she? What a funny question- she wondered if she could pull off that she'd been a girl the whole time and he'd just never noticed... she could try but maybe it had been a bit too much of a shift to make that seem plausible.
"What do you mean what am I? I'm uuhhmm.. a person? Laughing a lot?.. A girl?"

Maybe she would just play completely oblivious instead and let him work it out for himself. Like she would just hand her identity to him- that was no fun at all..

A furious blush possessed his face as his eyes repeatedly skimmed over the figure, just so he could make sure that he could actually believe them. Fun? It was so much more different when those words left a female mouth. But was it even—

Maybe he’d just shoved some fruit up his shirt when he wasn’t looking. Maybe he was faking some sort of illusion.
Or maybe Owen just hadn’t noticed the entire time.

Either way, it was undeniably awkward. He’d never felt this conflicted before, he was sure of it. The spatula in his grip was held limply to his side, before he raised it to point at the she-male. “Don’t m-mess with me,” he snarled in some attempt to sound threatening. “Just tell me what you did.”
God, if he spent the whole time with a girl, then he just wouldn’t know what to do with himself.

Owens distress was honestly the most amusing thing Shae had witnessed in a while- and she could barely stop himself falling back into more mirthful laughter. "I'm a b-bit confused hehe" She replied trying to sound sincere about it. "What I did? I pretended to go to kiss you to see if you were faking unconsciousness..." he obviously suspected to much to believe Shae didn't understand- but he would pretend it anyway. For fun.

She shrugged. "I didn't expect you to freak out quite so much... are you okay?" more giggling.

"Iwasntfakingit!" he quickly intercepted, waving the spatula furiously at him. Okay, now this was just embarrassing. How was there even any way of proving what he saw? Ask her to take off her shirt...? Yeah, fat chance. It was just a stupid situation. As she giggled, he slowly calmed down, lowering the spatula by his side.

"Okay, I get it. You're just playing with me. Haha, funny." He sneered. "Joke's over. Quit it."
He didn't answer her question. He didn't want to. He was the one who wanted the answers around here.

Shae feigned confusion. "Quit what? I'm not kissing you- am I? I didn't..." he continued to pretend to look confused by Owen's statement- he would not acknowledge that anything was different. At all.

This was way more fun that he had hoped for when he had decided to make himself a nuisance- and he didn't feel one bit sorry for it. He never really did feel sorry for anything or course- so it was just his usual attitude, but unlike most times he had actually found a way to amuse himself. He thought with amusement about what he should do next- Flirt? Maybe that would be too obvious. Should he actually switch again and pretend it never happened? It was fun seeing Owen so uncomfortable though. The possibilities were endless and he had plenty to choose from to get the most amusement out of his companies distress.

As stubborn as he wanted to be, Owen could genuinely not tell whether he really had just been seeing things, or if something creepy was up. Given the nature of the academy, the latter had just seemed just seemed so much more likely, but what if it had been nothing more than an honest mistake?

Yet, with how innocent he/she/it was acting, it was hard not to suspect something... but at the same time, it was hard to pin the blame on Shae. There was really only one conclusion to make of it.

He raised both hands in the air in defeat. "Right. I'm just going crazy, ain't I? Haha. I'm so done here."
He turned away as if starting to leave, but slow enough that Shae would still have a chance to stop him.