Maiko's brother waved a small black stick at him, and asked if he had written with one before. When Ignan peered at it, he had a feeling he had seen something similar in Tapendra's possession.

Merlin, the young man was as insolent as a childish first year, but Ignan did what we could to hold his tongue as he was a guest. It was hard - so many things one could say, so many hexes.

The boy kept going though, so Ignan continued to eat Maiko's cooking, biding his time until perhaps he would run out of steam, or have decided to wait for an answer to one of the questions.

"Does your mouth always run off, or does your brain ever intervene?" He eventually interrupted, studying the young man intently. Maiko would possibly consider him rude, but in the circumstances, when in Rome…

Her shoulders began to tremble. Mai buried her face in her hands, and then she couldn’t hold it back anymore. The giggles she had been trying to suppress exploded into a hearty, full, belly laugh. Apparently, she thought the words that came out of Storm’s mouth were the funniest thing she’d ever heard. To be fair, it was probably the funniest thing she had ever heard come out of Ignan’s mouth.
“He—“ Mai choked, “He just—“ She held up her hand and mimicked mouth movements with it. “It’s a—“ She squealed, “Family—“ Mai motioned between herself and her brother helplessly.

“Dear God, you’ve given her a stroke.” Kohaku muttered, “She’s trying to say that chattiness is a family trait.”

“Except,” Maiko settled down a bit, though her cheeks were flushed and she was a bit out of breath, “My brain intervenes from time to time. Yours doesn’t. Your brain-to-mouth filter is nonexistent.”  She faced Ignan with a wide smile, “I knew I liked you. I knew it.”

“It exists, I just don’t use it.” He replied sourly, bristling up a bit.

“Oh look, we’ve wounded his pride. How sweet.”

“This is why I don’t like it when you have friends.” Kohaku gave her a forced half smile before giving Storm a pointed look.

Maiko seemed to be having trouble talking, but her brother without a beat translated what she was attempting to convey. Ignan was at first concerned for her, and his expression was hesitant.

Eventually when his host regained the ability to speak she smiled broadly at him, and he was relieved to a point that his comment hadn't been perceived as very offensive. The fact that it has been perceived to be very entertaining hadn't crossed his mind - he didn't usually consider himself entertainment, and it was a little uncomfortable considering how the Muggle had spoken to him.

"I knew I liked you. I knew it."

Words failed him on a response to that, the past two minutes had gone in an entirely different direction to the one he'd imagined, and now his mind was already wondering if this lunch was to insinuate something more than colleagues. Oh dear.

"This is why I don't like it when you hve friends." Her brother protested, and served Ignan a pointed look. The Professor returned with the tone of a teacher, leaning his elbow on the edge of the table and inclining a little towards Kohaku to meet his glare without blinking.

"Because you don't like people telling you the truth? No magic, no balls either. Disappointing, after meeting your sister." He gestured to Maiko with one hand, but didn't break eye contact with her brother,
"So what use are you in the world, exactly?"

Usually, Maiko’s friends did their best to embarrass him (or so he thought), but he had never perceived their comments as rude, or malicious as much as inconsiderate and humorous. But this older fellow was a whole new creature entirely. He honestly couldn’t see why Maiko liked this Storm.  He was snarky, and he was no-nonsense.

But he was condescending, cold,  harsh, and no-nonsense. While Mai shared  a couple of those traits, he would have thought that the coldness would have driven her away.

And now here he was, insulting him.

Kohaku felt heat rise to his face, “I can handle the truth.” He replied sharply, “And who are you to judge me for being  a muggle, or whatever it is you call us. That is out of my control.” He heard his sister curse under her breath, but he didn’t dare look at her.

“What do I contribute to the world? I’m a student. I’m working a part time job and studying,  to become a pediatric oncologist one day . You know, save lives. It’s our equivalent of healers, but less effective. Not all of us are born with ridiculous wand waving magic powers that are isolated to only your kind.”

“Kohaku—“ He heard Mai say softly, in that tone of voice that told him that he needed to ‘calm down.’

He ignored her. “How can you ask me what I’m contributing to the world when wizards are keeping secrets that could save more than just wizarding lives?! It’s selfish. It’s cruel. You have wars that directly affect us, that hurt my sister and our family, we had no control over any of it!.” He motioned towards Maiko very explicitly,  “We still have no control over any of it, or anything that happens to us as a result of what wizards do. I--”

“Kohaku!” Her tone was sharper this time, commanding. It pulled him back. Kohaku fell silent, mouth set in a line. It seemed, he had made a fool of himself—and embarrassed his sister. He took a moment to count his breaths, and his body relaxed.

“Sorry.” He muttered, though Kohaku wasn’t really sure if he was actually sorry at all. "I don't like being looked down on for something I can't do anything about." He tried to explain, his tone much cooler than before. He had an explosive temper, but once he got everything off his chest, it was easy to settle down. "I was rude." And maybe, this guy was just poking fun at him. He had simply pushed the wrong buttons. Still, Kohaku was very sure that he disliked Storm. He had never been the forgiving type.

The etiquette experts like Arianne Derosiers would have ticked Ignan off severely for his comments, but Ignan was of a household that bragged and one-upped each other and had little time for Muggles. Whereas he was tolerant of a lot of things his relatives found unpalatable, he still had his discriminations against non-magical people, despite all he had learned about them since meeting Tapendra.

Maiko's little brother went off like a champagne cork, his ranting left him barely taking a breath between statements. He wanted to very much to bite back, but Maiko's shrill reaction to her brother interrupted before the breath made it out between his lips.

"I was rude."
"No, I just asked a valid question." Ignan replied nonchalantly, unable to hide that he was a little pleased the Muggle had gone off on one in response. He was clearly jealous that he did not possess magical potential.

"If you can handle the truth young man," Ignan continued, at this point not thinking very far ahead about the fact he was a guest or Maiko's friend, "then you should know that there are aspects of our lives that would be harmful to yours, and vice-versa. If potions and spells worked with any degree of safety with your kind, and you didn't all try to burn us at the stake or fire metal pellets at us in fear, we might be more forthcoming. Besides, you Muggles seem to do very well without us, rather more inventive perhaps, given your … limitations."

Leaning back in his seat a moment, he tilted his head in consideration, his tone returning to a politer, conversation volume.
"Two sides to every coin, and a healer in any sense is a very admirable profession, I'm sure your sister will be very proud to see you go and do such when you finish studying."

Now, Mai thought that maybe Kohaku wouldn’t like Storm. She expected that out of him. However, she did not expet him to be an absolute prick. Of course Ignan was reacting the way he did—Kohaku was digging his own grave!  He was eighteen, he knew what behavior was appropriate when guests and friends were over. Storm was sixty-something and he also knew better. As far as she was concerned, they were both in hot water. Kohaku started the fire, Ignan fed it.
She had always known that her brother was sensitive; that, combined with his apparent jealousy of magicfolk was a recipe for disaster.

Kohaku’s face twisted in confusion. Storm had gone from telling him off, to giving some sort of half-compliment. It seemed that he didn’t know how to feel. “To be fair, it’s much easier for your kind to—“

“Ah-ah.” Mai cut him off.

“Your kind to—“

“Ahh.” She wagged her finger at him,

“Your—“

“Husssssshhhh.” Her voice was tinged with irritation. Mai could feel heat rising to her face.

“Do you really have to—“

“Does what you have to say, really need to be said? And does it have to be said right now?” She gestured at the space between Ignan and Kohaku. “No. Probably not. Definitely not. I thought my brain-to-mouth filter was bad. Yours is worse.”

“But he’s—I don’t get why you have to—“

“I expect better out of you. Do you have anything positive to say? Hm? No?” She pointed towards the doorway, “Then go. Upstairs. To your room. I'll talk to you about this later."

“What the hell, I’m not a child!” He exclaimed, opening his mouth to say more.

“ I’ll treat you like an adult when you start behaving like one.”   

He stammered a bit, before raising his hands in exasperation and leaving—stomping up the stairs and slamming his bedroom door.

Maiko slowly turned to face Ignan, resting her elbows on the table and clasping her hands. She raised her eyebrows at him, silently wondering if he had anything to say. No. It was best to move on. She was disappointed, to say the least.   

"That was fun." She said sardonically, "And you, well, you've got a sharp tongue. I'm not sure if I should be upset or impressed."

It was an awkward moment to be sure, Ignan realising from Maiko's reaction once her brother was banished that he'd not entirely been seen as justified either.

"Too much?" He asked, surprised, "I see, I suppose I could have phrased that a little more sensitively. I didn't realise he was quite so easy to wind up." Maiko's expression wasn't changing.

"You didn't have to send him upstairs though - he'd have seen right in a few minutes."

He averted his eyes down to his dinner, and wondered if he'd really put his foot in it this time. He had been getting on rather well with Maiko, and he had no irritation against her, but he hadn't banked on her gobby little brother. He reminded him too much of the students, only he didn't fear what Ignan could do to him for running off at the mouth.

"Maiko… please tell me what you're thinking. I've obviously been the bad house guest, upset your brother, and it wasn't my intention. I should apologise."

Too much? Maiko simply kept staring. Why did Storm seem surprised that it was too much? To her, it was obvious that both of them had gone too far.

It seemed that there was nothing that would make Ignan change his tune faster than Maiko turning the power of ten disappointed mothers on him.

She let him speak, and finally she relaxed her shoulders and unclasped her hands. “He needed his space. Kohaku was only going to make things worse.” He was the sort of person who needed to get away from a situation in order to cool down completely. He had always been like that. “Haku’s always been sensitive. Believe it or not, he’s doing much better now than when he was younger.” Helping raise him had been a challenge for her.

“He would’ve seen right, but whether he would admit it is a different story. It’s not the first time something like this has happened.“  Mai sighed, shaking her head.  “I’m disappointed and a little frustrated, but I’m not angry at either of you.”  She gave him a small smile,  Mai was the forgiving type, and she would put this all behind her easily.  “You can… Apologize to him later. I’m not so sure he’d believe it was genuine, right now.”

She let out a small laugh, "I'd hate to see a student cross you! I bet you've got some good stories."

Ignan wasn't so keen to apologise to Maiko's twerp of a brother, but if it kept the peace with her then he would find a way to avoid it without her noticing, or swallow it and accept it. It wasn't his done thing, for sure.

"Stories? No, students don't cross me properly more than once, they learn their lesson." He assured her, with a shake of his head. This wasn't strictly true of course - many of them tried a second or a third time, but he didn't like to admit it.

"Somehow," he admitted, "more often than not I'm able to think of a way to put them in their place, but I still, you know - think of better lines hours later and kick myself. You wouldn't approve, I prey on their insecurities." He couldn't meet her eyes as he admitted it, he had a feeling he was being the worst guest and that Maiko would be glad to send him packing.

"I'm sure the versions the students tell you are worse than the reality. For some of them, at least, the majority it's probably about right. I lost concentration with a couple of third years suspended upside-down from the rafters of my classroom the other day because Jowd happened to call at my door about some of the Gryffindors. They bounced, and the head wound was easy enough for Nagde to fix." He hazarded a glance in her direction to try and judge her reaction.

Maiko had heard plenty of stories from Ignan’s poor students, namely the ones who frequently caused troubles in his class. While Mai did not particularly agree with his method of handling things. He was not a man who tolerated a lack of discipline and controlled the classroom with an iron fist. Mai had a feeling he didn’t expect any less than the best from his students, and expected even more from himself. He was quick to criticize, and any praises he gave were probably few and far between. It only made the compliments even more important when they did occur.

If she was a teacher, she would have been much more gentle. Mai suspected that gentleness would not have commanded the same sort of respect that Ignan did, however.

And she most definitely didn’t approve of him dangling third years from rafters! Dropping them on their heads was a risk he was willing to take when he chose that to be his method of punishment. But still, the dark and twisted side of her was rather tickled at that mental image. It felt like something that would happen in a wizarding version of The World According to Garp—one of Maiko’s favorite muggle books.

But no! She wouldn’t even giggle at that! She refused to. Mai let out a strange coughing noise as she suppressed a laugh. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards, though she tried her hardest to hold onto a grim, serious expression. As much as Maiko tried to hide it, she was amused. The astute observer would note that her eyes were indeed smiling, even if her face was fighting against it.  The counselor couldn’t have Storm know that her mostly sweet, bubbly exterior concealed a rather dark sense of humor.

“Is that so?” She responded tersely, afraid that if she opened her mouth that raucous laughter would escape.

It was odd to feel bad for how he conducted detentions and punishments before Maiko, but she had always seemed staunchly in the camp of kindness towards the spotty buggers, whereas he was the opposite. Turf them out of bed at four to run them round the castle and have them doing the chores rather than the elves, and they'd soon grow a backbone and grow up.

Maiko let out a curious little sound, which Ignan couldn't quite interpret as disgust, disappointment, hatred - unless it was amusement? Did her mouth just twitch?

"Is that so?" She managed. Ignan's eyebrows raised and he paused, quite still, trying to read her expression better.

"Well, that's tame if I'm honest, so I won't elaborate further, only that it gets results, and keeps you well stocked with visitors." He cleared his throat and leaned over a little towards her, narrowing his eyes.

"You don't - no, you're not finding that remotely amusing are you councillor Biladeau-Yukawa?"

It was true—Maiko was all for treating the students with kindness and respect. She had never treated a student with contempt or condescension.  But that didn’t mean that imagining rather extreme punishments wasn’t amusing. Part of it must’ve been the ridiculousness of it all—the shock factor. She would never approve of such practices.

Apparently, her poker face wasn’t strong enough. It was difficult for her to hide her emotions—especially outside of work, when she wasn’t wearing her ‘professional hat.’

Mai’s face flushed a rather brilliant shade of pink and opened her mouth to protest—but it was futile. There was no point in lying to Storm about it. So she looked down at her hands in mock shame.

“…. So you’ve finally figured out that underneath my sweet exterior is someone with a… Disturbing sense of humor.” She let out a small chuckle and shook her head, as if it would shake the image of children hanging from rafters away. It didn’t. “I’m… Sorry?” Mai wasn’t really sure what to say in this situation. What in the world did he even think of this?

"Hmph!" Ignan responded, and sat back, studying Maiko's expression with narrowed eyes. "So, you're human like the rest of us! What a turn up for the books." His lips curled into a smirk and he leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table on the side nearest her, resting his chin and curling his fingers around the point as he studied her ever more closely.

"I don't think you've quite got a 'disturbing' sense of humour, no, we'd have heard the cackling from your office after each student departed as they so often report from mine. You don't - do you?" He asked, for a moment being entirely serious to see how she reacted, whether she protested, whether she made more of a joke.

"You cook, you dance, you have a fine head upon your shoulders, and you do take some humour in student misfortune. I have underestimated you Maiko." His cold blue eyes curled at the corner as he gave a rare smile. "Don't worry, I shan't tell a soul, they'll never believe me - you're a deity amongst your colleagues, for never losing your temper."

He had responded… Favorably. Mai wasn’t sure what she had expected, and she was glad that he wasn’t at all bothered by her suppressed giggles. Some people would’ve been--though she didn’t know why she had believed that there was any possibility that the man who hung students from the rafters was someone who would be disturbed by anyone who laughed at the mere mental image of it.

“No, no… I don’t cackle at the students when they leave my office.” Her lips curled up devilishly, “Or do I? Perhaps the only reason I play music when I’m alone is so I can laugh at the misfortune of others.”  No, Maiko absolutely did not. She never had--  she was so focused on helping the students learn how to manage and cope with whatever their troubles were.  Mai actually took the students quite seriously, even if some of their problems were viewed as quite minor by some.

Then came some unexpected words.

For a moment, all she did was stare at Ignan, processing what he had just said.

“Well-- thank you!” She finally said, accepting the compliment. “A deity though? But I do have a temper. I control it best when at work, and it’s more tame now than it was when I was younger.” She tried not to express any anger towards others, unless they completely deserved it. "Now it's more silent. It's probably for the best."

Maiko was amused and surprised by his explanation that her colleagues very much admired her restraint at work. He hadn't realised she was unaware of the respect she commandeered from staff and students alike, but perhaps she took it as simply part of her job.

"The silent treatment?" Ignan's eyebrows raised and he seemed pleasantly surprised, "that's when you know you've crossed a woman." Daresay he'd experienced it a number of times in the past.

Ignan knew when he accepted the invitation from Maiko to come to lunch that he was in for an unusual day. But between her fantastic cooking, her abrasive Muggle brother, and her darker sense of humour, it had turned out to be one of his better invitations.

He might even oblige to apologise to her brother before he left...

End