Discipline... Yeah [Job - Meletzo]

Job Info:

”Hmpf… I can imagine countless of other things to have fun with,” he mumbled as his feet walked across the calm streets of Magnolia. He was on a job that was suggested to him by someone back at the guild, but why suggest a lover of improvement at battle this kind of job? All that he had to do was to take care of a child. He didn’t once think about the possibilities of what this child could possess of potential, intellect or insanity, but the grudge of him being suggested this kind of job the first day as a mage was hurting him. Oh well, a job is a damn job, so he better go with it. And now, his feet were already before the door to the house; a couple of keys were given to the other one. The other one was supposedly his partner on this job, so he stood there and waited, having his red eye dart around the corners of this house and around…

Maya stared at the pair of keys in her hand as she made her way down the streets of her hometown. She was very glad that her first job brought her back to Magnolia; with all of the rampant change in her life recently, it was a comfort to have some familiar scenery around her. Not that she knew the people she was working for, but that was also a comfort in its own way. She didn't want anybody she knew before to see her like this. Better to try and remain anonymous.

As she turned a corner, Maya froze. In front of the house she was planning on visiting, there was a rather strangely dressed person. Most likely, he was the other mage that she was taking the job with. He'd be the first mage not from Lamia Scale that she'd interact with as an equal; she would try to treat him respectfully. She flipped her hoodie up and stepped over towards the house. "Are you the other mage for this job?" She asked as she approached him, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. "My name's Maya. Nice to meet you."

His red eye suddenly caught sight of a stranger approaching him; by time, the stranger would appear to not be as strange to him as he imagined the first time. His first second of glaring at the lady appeared to grant him enough about her appearance; she was wearing a hoodie, quite a distinguish set of clothes for an immigrant like him. Oh well, this world was surely big, and he would most likely find other surprises to encounter.

“Yes,” he replied to her with that laze of not putting in much expression on his facial appearances when meeting new people, “And I see that you got the key. Perfect.” They stood right in front of the door, obviously, so the beginning of the job was at hand. With closed eyes, he softly grabbed the keys from her and unlocked the door; he wasn’t going to be a douche and let his partner do everything, huh? Even though that anything barely happened yet, he already felt behind.

“And it’s just one small child, so don’t gri-“ he was about to assure Maya, but as soon as the door was opened, a small foot appeared to plant itself on Shen’s face without warning. He stood frozen, confused of why someone kicked him; although, he did wish to have anything more physical to be a part of this job. “Hah! Too slow..!” the small boy laughed out as he landed down. Shen’s hair spike (singular) trickled in inner rage, but… it was a child. Keep calm.

Maya couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as the other mage took the other key from her softly. He seemed rather stern, but not in a bad way; rather, in a way that made him seem reliable and no-nonsense. She'd probably be able to rely on him, which was a huge weight off of Maya's shoulders. Not that she had doubted that the other person would be more experienced than her, but confirmation was always nice.

She started having second thoughts about the job in general, however, when the foot planted itself in her partner's face. The kid laughed as he landed, while her partner seemed to seethe in rage silently. Not the best start. Maya stood and stared momentarily before deciding that she should probably be doing something to help. She'd babysat the local kids several times before the incident, so she had a decent idea of what to do. She stepped over to the kid, making sure that she was between her partner and the kid as to prevent any conflict. "That wasn't very nice," she said sternly to the kid. "We're here to help you, you know? We can't have fun with you if all you're gonna do is try to beat us up." Please don't hit me, please don't hit me, she thought to herself as she awaited the kid's response.

His hair spike was about to stab the living out of the poorly ignorant kid when Maya stepped in. A mixture of relief and strain crossed his body at the moment, while he quickly regained calm again. Just who was this kid to think that he could- calm. Calm. Shen was having some tough moments there, but he didn’t want to appear as one with a short fuse, so he made a quick ‘Hmph’ to the side and walked up in front of the boy. “Listen, kid; kicking strangers won’t bring you to any good places. Trust me.”

After saying that, a hand pulled up the kid and let him rest on Shen's shoulders, which his eyes caught a glance of the space inside the house; apparently, no one was home, in which he went by the conclusion that the parents left earlier. Speaking of parents, a discussion was to be expected with them later, judging by this kid’s greeting. So… now that he was alone with this child, who was probably only a few 4 years old, he made a cracking sound with his neck and thought about the choices to make… he was having quite the problem. He was the youngest of 10, and he’d never once in his life taken care of a younger child before. In fact, he was often the child to be taken care of; hence why he pulled up the kid like that. It was out of experience from his own life, and he used to enjoy it. Well, the kid began to laugh a little, so it appeared to work. “… I wonder why your parnets left you so early,” he let out quietly, "... Also why they asked mages to do this. Huh..." The child would just shine out of happiness and make his arms stretch out to fly like a plane. "Hm. We should see if there's any food. Care to help again, Maya..?"

Maya let out a deep breath that she hadn't known she was holding. That particular situation seemed to be defused; the kid wasn't acting out anymore (at least, not currently), and her partner seemed to have calmed himself. Good. This might actually be easier than expected, which was a huge relief. As her partner hauled the kid onto his shoulders, Maya peered inside the empty house. Was the kid the only one in here? He didn't even look five! She would have to have some stern words with the parents when they got back, leaving such a young kid on their own.

She turned around to realize that her partner was staring at her. "We should see if there's any food," he said. "Care to help again, Maya..?"
"Y-yeah, of course," Maya responded, stuttering a bit as she was caught by surprise. She hurried into the house, looking around for wherever their kitchen might be. It was fairly easy to find in the relatively small house; Maya quickly began looking through the cupboards for anything easy to make. She ended up with several things: a few different variants of soup, a frozen pizza, and a pair of frozen dinners. "We have a few options," she called out to her partner and the child. "Come take a look."

Shen heard the words of Maya and walked into the room that appeared to be the family’s kitchen. The kid, meanwhile, began playing around with his face and make his lips and jaws open up widely, then close them dramatically. Reminding himself that it was a mere kid made him calmer this time than before, where he was more shocked over the actual situation than the fact that a child kicked him. Despite, what grown-up goes all mad over a little kid? It was a logical cause.

His eyes scanned the variants of food in the kitchen; pizza, soup, pasta, chicken, pork, fish, broccoli and all sorts of frozen dishes. “Eh… perhaps let’s just make a little snack,” he suggested to Maya, having his sight on the pizza, “Kid guy, got any fur-“ “No,” the kid answered unrealistically quick as if Shen’s question was expected, “You two mages, right? Just do that boom-bang thingey like my dad always talks about! Show me, show me!” Was this guy suggesting them to use magic with food? Without hesitation, Shen pointed his finger at the frozen pizza.

“Alright, watch closely. Also, cover your ears,” he warned with a grin on his face, while relieved that he can finally release some magic today. With a quick ‘BOOM’ along with the light that covered one’s sight for a brief second, his lightning prepared the pizza in no time… just with a little charcoal on the edges. The kid’s eyes were shining after the showcase, definitely amused…

Maya watched the kid and her partner as she moved to put everything but the pizza back where she had found it. Truth be told, she was very happy that the other mage had volunteered to do the 'boom-bang thingy'; she still had no confidence in her ability to use magic in a way that wouldn't break everything around her (or her), so it was much better to have the one who was confident in their skills do the deed during a mission.

Even though she covered her ears like he warned, the crack of lightning still made Maya jump slightly. The pizza was pretty well done for being cooked by a bolt of lightning; it looked a little crispy, but certainly still edible. "Is there a knife anywhere?" Maya asked nobody in particular, already peering through drawers to see if they had one. After a few moments, she pulled out a standard kitchen knife. "Never mind, found one." She went to work on the pizza, using the knife to split it into pieces. "Alright guys, dig in," she said, grabbing a piece herself and stepping back a bit.

And thus, the masterpiece of a pizza warmed up by lightning seemed to satisfy both Shen and the kid as their noses picked the scent. Slowly, the spike-haired boy put the child down, gave him a pizza slice and went: “Help yourself.” He would take a slice himself afterwards, while having his eyes closed as he discreetly appeared to enjoy the food. Although, after a moment, the eyelids containing his red pupil glanced at his partner. Despite the lack of rushing blood through his veins, it was a good start of his adventure. A very harmless one, though; yet not so harmless. He slowly looked away with a casual expression, worrying that the red-eye thing would catch her attention too much. Meanwhile, the kid stared into the slice with widened eyes… until he tried to stuff it all down his throat at once. Such gross manners, but expected from quite the ignorant individual.

"At least have some manners when eating..." he complained to the little boy with a face with disgust. The boy simply stuck out his tongue to Shen, in which a little rage built up again. This guy really wanted to touch his nerves that bad, didn't he? "I eat as I want," the young child answered, leaving Shen with a twitching eye at the disrespectful reply to mere advice that would most likely help him in the future.

Then, magic happened; not that kind of magic, but the kind that you don’t expect to happen, even though that it appears realistic. The child seemed to fade out into instant slumber, tired eyes quickly closing in and followed with the start of his snore. Before he touched the ground, Shen’s hand held the child’s belly, keeping him levitated from the kitchen floor. “I guess that he’s not as troublesome as the parents described him,” he commented to Maya, while lifting the small body on his shoulder, “… And there’s 2 hours until they come back.” His eyes began glancing at the sleeping guy, filled with curiosity… what exactly was he supposed to do now? Should he put the child to sleep? Despite how obvious that it sounded, Shen wasn’t that experienced with babysitting as explained earlier. It was too clear on his expression that he was having trouble finding out what to do with this ‘troublemaker’…

Maya quickly put away the knife and bit into her pizza with relish. Despite being slightly burnt, the flavor of the frozen pizza was still very much there; with every bite, the flavor spread through her mouth. The happiness came to a swift end, however, as Maya found herself feeling close to bursting after only half the piece. She let out a forlorn sigh as she put down the slice. Her body just loved to remind her of how different she was now; even though she was fortunate enough to still be able to taste and eat, she was only able to have a few bites. It was a rather depressing reminder of how far from human she was now, even if being freed from the sensation of hunger was somewhat liberating.

She looked up from her melancholy to realize that the boy had fallen asleep and her partner had caught him. "Sorry, I was...distracted for a moment," she muttered, fidgeting slightly. She couldn't dwell on her situation in her mind when there was another situation unfolding in reality; as hard as it might be, she would have to put her issues to the side for now. "Looks like he's really out of it," she said, tapping him lightly to see if there was a response. "Did you see where the kid's bedroom was? Maybe we can get him down for the night now and rest easy for the rest of the time."

Shen threw a curious glance at Maya and at what happened to her in that brief moment. It was a quick sigh, though she didn’t finish her slice. Perhaps the pizza wasn’t as luckily spicy as he concluded, in which he let it slide. “Hm… yeah, you know; kids love to sleep when they want, don’t they..?” he spoke to her with the same, lowered, calm voice as earlier, though with the intention of making fun of it. As much as he remembered of his childhood, sleep was to be avoided at all costs, until his body couldn’t handle the wake. He kept having nightmares day after day, and it happened so many times and with such a diversity that his parents thought that he was accursed, or so they told him. He could see that they knew very well about it… back to present, he began listening to Maya and her suggestion. “It must be upstairs. There’s a stairway at the end of the living room…” he replied as his feet moved out of the kitchen, “Just going to put him to bed and we can relax.”

It would take a quarter of an hour before he returned. Marks from toys were on his skin from all the things that he stepped on, plus what he fell on. However, not wanting to let out a single sound, he endured them until now. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch…” he complained his sore pain, “That brat plays around with damn fire…” He found a seat on a couch where he leaped on, feeling the rest embrace him. “Well… ouch, I guess that we should try and kill time, somehow.”

Maya watched as her partner quipped about the kid falling asleep so suddenly and set off towards their charge's room. For a person that seemed so rough-and-tumble, the guy seemed to be handling the job rather well, especially since he was bearing the brunt of the kid's mischief. It kind of made Maya feel like she should try something else to help out, but at this point it was probably too late to do anything else for the kid.

When the partner re-entered the room, Maya's eyes widened. He was covered in cuts! Were they all from toys? That sounded ridiculous, but based on what she'd seen of how wild the kid was, it seemed possible. Still, it looked nasty. She took a seat on a chair a short distance away from the couch that her partner was seated on, silent for a moment as she reached for her pouch of Lacrima 'candies' and popped one into her mouth.

Suddenly, she remembered something that the doctors who had looked at her had told her when they were looking at her new body. "Do you want me to try and heal you?" She asked the man. "I'm supposedly able to do it."

Surely, a tough guy like Shen wasn’t that fragile to be damaged by mere toys of a smaller child, huh? Well, guess what; who likes to witness building blocks (which are pure hell to step on), a fork, a moistened roof which led to a piece falling on his head, along with the way back to the door with exact same outcome? He was regretting his earlier words, because this boy wasn’t normal. Not at all. Shen still felt headaches times a 100 from laying down, which came surprisingly, and all he wanted now was to meet the parents. Either that or go home, he didn’t care which.

His partner was seated on a chair nearby, munching on her candy as she asked if he wanted to be healed. “Eh..?” he let out in curiosity. By now, he hadn’t seen her use magic, thus finding interest in how she utilized the magic power within her. On top of that, healing powers weren’t very familiar with lightning, and experience is the greatest wisdom. “Hmpf… alright,” he replied with trouble by the soreness and ache from his wounds as he sat up, “I might as well see what you got… then we’ll be even in showing off. Am I right..?”

"I definitely hope so," was Maya's response as she moved over to her companion. Truth be told, she had next to no idea what she was doing; she wasn't even sure if what she was doing was actually possible. Still, no harm in trying, right? What's the worst that can happen? Other than accidentally unleashing all the magic within the Lacrimas and blowing everybody up, of course. But that wouldn't happen...probably.

The girl placed her hands in a spot hovering a few inches above her partner's body and took a deep breath. What was the advice they always gave to magic users? Visualize? Was worth a shot. She shut her eyes and tried imagining vividly the magic from the Lacrimas in her wrists flowing into the other mage's body, focusing on and closing his wounds. Sure enough, Maya began feeling magic flowing from her palms down into the man's body. She started celebrating in her mind, only to suddenly start and redouble her efforts as entirely too much energy began flowing from the Lacrimas. Aside from that initial slip-up, however, the spell proceeded about as Maya thought it would.

Once she felt that she had instilled enough energy into Shen, she opened her eyes and stepped back, stumbling a bit. She distantly realized she was sweating, and the Lacrimas in her wrists felt drained; she fumbled for another Lacrima candy and tossed it in, trying to still her heart beating in her chest. When she looked over at her partner, though, she saw that his wounds had been cleared up. She'd done it! She let out an exultant sigh. "I actually did it," she breathed. "Do you feel better, uh..." The smile faded from her face as she realized her folly. "I never asked for your name, did I?"

Shen watched closely as Maya’s hands leaked out mana into his wounds at close quarters. The sore parts of his wounds were decreased, and soon enough, all his wounds appeared to be effectively healed. He couldn’t figure out exactly how this magic’s main theme was all about or if it had some connection with other magic that he’d seen in the past, but truth be told; he was grateful for her help.

“Mhm. Thanks…” was his show of gratitude to the green-haired girl, while his neck made cracking sound as he turned his head around a little, “Healing aspects… fascinating.” He suddenly realized her troubled face that she put up as Maya asked for his name. Snap, that was right; he hadn’t even presented himself. To correct that mistake, he stood up on his now fully-healed feet and looked into her eyes with minimal distance between them: “No. It’s Shen… Shen Dao.” He didn’t get to say any more as the door behind them was unlocked, seemingly by a proper key, and a couple entered. Well, didn’t they arrive a little too early..?

(OOC: Just gonna put the job up in the ending (cuz we met the requirements) but we can always continue ^^ and scold the parents and all)