In a bar...

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry's having a fairly good day, as these things go. He's taking a break from work, and has absconded with Perry's laptop to the bar, where he is typing up a blog post detailing their last case. Or at least, what he's allowed to blog about. Perry still insists on checking these things over before Harry posts them (confidentiality and all that, which fine. Harry can work with that), but he's got pretty good at knowing which bits to leave out or alter slightly to keep Perry in business.

And besides. It's kind of fun, being like Dr Watson. Only, you know. Without the doctor part.

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[captain_fucking_magic]

An idea occurs to Harry. He is actually really curious to see. All this build-up; how can he not be?

But she's, like, young enough to be his kid. If he'd started early. It's kinda weird.

"What if I teach you a card trick?" he asks.

[myeuh_muh]

"Ooh, okay." Darcy perks up. "You have to teach me first. I've been taken in that way before."

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Oh, really?" Harry asks, possibly implying something. Or possibly just being oblivious.

Of course he has a pack of cards on him. Blue-backed Bicycles, because everyone knows you can't get trick Bicycle cards.

These ones are, of course, completely marked, and very slightly shaved, but that doesn't matter. Harry's going to teach her some good-old-fashioned sleight of hand.

He shows her the trick first, so she knows what she's going to be learning. Working a quick overhand shuffle, he asks her to tell him when to stop shuffling, and then shows her the card at the break and tells her to memorise it, before he loses the card back in the deck.

"Is... this your card?" he asks, showing her a cart that is most certainly not her card.

[myeuh_muh]

Darcy smiles. She can't help it.

"Nooo." She draws it out like a kid would.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry looks at the card as though he's annoyed at it.

"Aw, damnit," he says, possibly over-acting just a little bit. He puts the card back and tosses the whole pack down on the table between them. "Shouldda known you'd have picked the three of clubs."

[myeuh_muh]

Darcy smiles even more broadly. She can't help it. A good card trick played well will get her every time. She looks down at the table, expectantly.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"It's real easy," Harry says. He picks the deck back up and fans it out so he can find the card again.

"You got your card, here, and you put it at the bottom, here. You gotta be careful you don't flash that, because then the trick's ruined."

He shows her how to shuffle the pack to keep the card on the bottom, and then how to shuffle it in a different way to force the card.

"They think, because the cards are coming out of your hand, that they're getting a random card. But you're pulling off the top of the stack and then showing them the bottom one," he says. "You can do anything for the pay-off. It's usually better to pretend to fuck it up first, though. It makes the reveal seem somehow more impressive."

[myeuh_muh]

Darcy, concentrating hard, takes the deck from him and tries the trick herself. There's a moment where she looks like she might spray the cards across the table, but she just about pulls the trick off.

"I'm so bad at card-tricks," she complains, reshuffling the deck.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Just takes practise." He shrugs. "I can do it, anyone can."

The amount of stuff he can't seem to do right should confirm this.

[myeuh_muh]

"Yeah, I guess..." Darcy tries it again, a little more successfully. "I guess this means I owe you a viewing. Probably for a card trick you can touch the place where her feebly waving arm slapped me on the belly."

Actually it's a strawberry birthmark, but a story's a story. Darcy suddenly feels a little dumb. Like, she's a grown woman. Even in school she had a tree for almost-privacy.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Uh. I think I'm good, there," Harry says.

Mostly because he still feels like a dirty old man right now, but still.

[myeuh_muh]

"Hey." Darcy raises her chin challengingly. "What do you mean you're 'good there'?"

She's not even having a fat month week day. And it's a pretty good scar.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"I... don't really want to go around touching weird scars on strangers?" Harry tries.

He's not really sure what he did to get yelled at this time.

[myeuh_muh]

"Oh." Darcy relaxes a bit. "That's okay, you don't have to touch it. To be honest, that would be a little wierd. That's more a second date activity really.

"Hey, and it's not a weird scar. It's a perfectly regular scar that I made up a weird story for because I wanted to freak out Millicent Andrews. And it worked. So there."

[captain_fucking_magic]

"All right," Harry says.

He half thinks Darcy might be able to give Harmony a run for her money in some areas.

[myeuh_muh]

No comment.

"Are you saying 'all right' because it's a perfectly regular scar or 'all right' because you think I'm crazy?"

Maybe a bit more self-aware.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Can it be both?" Harry says. "Maybe a little more than the other, but probably kinda both."

[myeuh_muh]

"Okay." Darcy says, affably. "Sorry. I can get a bit... Keyed up."

She sits back, and fiddles with the deck of cards. Well, now she's made it awkward.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Right," Harry says. "So..."

Well, now he doesn't know what's going on, actually.

[myeuh_muh]

"Uh... Well if you want I can show you my scar..." Darcy says, since she's never been one to welsh on a deal. "I mean, it is a pretty good scar."

Uh.

"Or you could tell me more about Perry and we could raincheck?"

Disappointing but feasible.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"I dunno. Maybe Perry might wanna see it too. That could be his sorta thing."

He shrugs, as if he's not even sure what they're talking about anymore.

[myeuh_muh]

Wait.

What?

Darcy gives Harry a very long look.

"...Do you ever listen to yourself?" she tries, finally. It seems like the best question.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"What? Yeah. Like, all the time. Why?"

He's really not sure what her question has to do with anything. Of course he listens to himself.

[myeuh_muh]

Darcy looks at him again, another long moment.

"...You know, you're kind of adorable," she says, finally.

Kind of like the last puppy in the shop. Which is the last puppy because it looks really derpy and is standing in a puddle.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Well, she's asked a question, and he answered it, so now he's stuck on it.

"No, I wanna know. Why? I'm... I'm generally curious."