Friday evening, about quarter to eight

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"Anyone home?" Johann called before he turned to shut the front door on the Alley behind him. His feet carried him steadily up the stairs from street level, a little weary. It was Friday evening, and there was plenty to be done still. The weekend ahead of him had Samhain celebrations with the Spectres in Edinburgh. He was particularly excited about it given Balfour's vivid explanations earlier in the month, even if his costume was proving fiendishly difficult to assemble.

But before he could contemplate the charms best for working with feathers, he had important work to be done. Best friends were afforded the odd free job after all. Especially ones he hadn't seen since the previous Sunday. This week had been particularly busy, his time at the Ministry was filled to the point he was tempted to do too many hours, but his private work was starting to recover at the same time, so he couldn't afford the Ministry free overtime. That and he'd been on the trail of his father's dodgy finances again.

The flat stank of brine, a salty smell was permeating from the kitchen where one occupant could be found.
"Busy?" He asked Arc, still wearing his coat, his familiar bag hung across his body, "I got the import paperwork, for the research. I've the time tonight, that's all, and we best file it sooner than later."

Seeing confirmation that it was still appropriate, despite the activities of the kitchen, Johann nodded, slung off his bag and threw his coat onto the hooks with theirs. As usual, he wore a suit, though no tie. He stifled a yawn as he turned back - he'd not been home all the previous night, abroad chasing his father's work. As such, he had not seen Balfour for a couple of days, but knew he would have to try and sleep that night or the next if he were to make it through Sunday.

"Right so," He pulled open his bag and put it on one end of the table, rifling through what looked to be an impossible amount of paperwork for the bag to contain, thank Merlin for magic. He seized a set of printed forms with Ministry headers and lay them flat on the table before rooting around for a notebook, and self inking quill. Finally he threw the bag beneath the table.

It was only when he actually looked up from the form and paid attention to what Arcturus was doing that he even thought to ask - and more did through peering across pointedly.

Friday was usually a day of rest - and lately, a day of enjoyment - for Arc, but today Elixa had to work late. He'd done enough reading for the night, but his hands still itched to do something. As such, he was preparing a rather large basin borrowed from the laundry with a mixture of concentrated saltwater. He'd have to replace the salt later. As he stirred, up to his elbows in saltwater, he heard the voice call out.

"Anyone home?" Arc didn't turn away from the sink as he heard Johann make his way up the stairs. Odd to see him back here after almost a week of absence. He hadn't seen Johann for the week, and part of him felt slightly reluctant to entertain him. But Arc was not one to push friends away, especially if they'd come all the way here. He called back, though he was distracted with mixing the brine. "Kitchen!" For once Johann would see him in not his usual hoodie, but an old rugby shirt with the sleeves rolled up all the way to his elbows.

It was starting to smell really strongly. Arc wrinkled his nose a bit, but he retrieved the large jar in which something pale translucent green with suspended yellow flecks was contained from under the sink and set it with a grunt on one side of the sink. Then he set out empty jars on the counter in a neat line on the other side of the sink. This was not a delicate process, but he preferred to concentrate on it anyway.

"Busy? I got the import paperwork, for the research. I've the time tonight, that's all, and we best file it sooner than later." Arc, still focused on what he was doing, didn't answer him immediately as he unscrewed the jars one by one, laying their covers aside in preparation for whatever he was about to do.

"Mm, yeah, I'll join you in a minute." It was a bad habit, that impassive, indifferent tone of voice, but Arc prioritised his work over actually talking to people when he set his mind to it. Now the tough part was at hand. He unscrewed the lid of the jar containing the odd translucent substance and gently poured it into the basin, careful to ensure no drop of it even splashed outside of the basin.

The substance poured out in one stream of glistening slime[1], releasing a faint smell of fish into the air. Arc kept his eyes focused on the task at hand, ignoring Johann for the moment. No wand could be used here; everything was done by hand just like the Greek fishermen in ancient times had done, and it was a good challenge. He felt rusty. This was bad; six months of not using it had made him a little stiff at transferring this precious slime.

Despite the difficulty of the task, he was smiling a little. The slime brought back good memories, and he rather liked its texture. Perhaps with the new research, he could see if Southeast Asian ingredients could mix with Western.

1.	Corynthian eel slime on the AO Lexicon

Arc was completely involved in whatever he was doing in the sink that was causing the smell. Johann was sat at the kitchen table behind him, legs crossed, quill in hand, poised to get going, and suddenly realised it was probably the worst time. It was one of those days where he forgot everyone around him did not share his interest in paperwork and understanding the strange rules and requirements of international trade.

Part of him had just wanted to get on with it, because things were still a little strange from the previous Sunday. Despite apparating across London and walking down Diagon Alley while Arc had smoked, talking calmly, Johann had decided to bid the healer goodbye as they reached the front door of the Diagon Alley flat.

Instead he went for a walk of his own to try and settle his own thoughts before returning to Atreus, and to see Balfour later, under the guise he'd been working all of Sunday instead. Arc still seemed to have little to no interest in asking what had happened in the last few months before he'd come back, and had listened to idle gossip in the St Mungo's wards instead, which still riled Johann. However, just as much as it did, he equally did not want to explain to anyone again.

He just wanted his old friend back.

But it wasn't going to be the same, he had to accept that. And here he was at the kitchen table pretending everything was the same.

From behind he watched Arcturus with the jar, impatient. He thumbed the corner of the set of forms from his colleagues in the trade regulations team and tapped the fingers of his right hand on the tabletop, eyes wandering the rest of the room instead.

"Shall I come back?" He asked eventually, and winced as he heard his irritation reflect in his tone. "I'll come back, looks like you've got your hands full, literally." He drew his chair back quite suddenly, getting back to his feet, looking over at Arc again at the sink.

The scrape of the chair legs being dragged across the floor reminded Arc that he was not entirely alone in the room. His hands still full of slime, submerged up to the elbow in saltwater, he half-turned to look over his shoulder.

"Really, Joh? My hands may be full but my mouth isn't." The healer gave him a confused look. "This is just something I have to do with the saltwater not drying up or having dry hands at all, but that doesn't mean I'm unavailable. Look, get up here to the counter with whatever you have and talk to me. If you need my help, just ask or we'll never get anything done at all."

Ball of slime in hand, Arc quickly transferred it to the first jar, easily filling half with the handful. "I would've joined you," he explained as he quickly dipped the jar into the basin, "but I'm sure you don't need fish slime and saltwater over that paperwork. It smells of brine enough for me to keep my hands to myself and not, you know." He gestured vaguely behind him. "Dripping saltwater all over the floor. It's just saltwater, but I'm too used to being careful and not spilling everything everywhere like I accidentally did with lye water the first time I started working in the hospital."

After a pause, he added, "This stuff's not toxic either." Just in case. "If it were, I wouldn't be doing it in the kitchen."

The action got Arc's attention, which of course had been the point of it all. He tried to keep a straight face in response to Arc's response, and glanced to the counter to Arc's right as he gestured to it, and then down at the floor as water from Arc's hand dripped on it. He best not get any of it on the paperwork.

Without a further word, Johann scooped up the forms and his notebook, taking care not to catch the quill nib on either. The kitchen chair slid back under the table and he walked across the kitchen floor with heavier footsteps than normal.

"Alright." He spoke at last, though it didn't sound like it, especially as he was eyeing the sink area with trepidation. "You won't have to file all of these," he gestured to the pile before him, "but as I'm still not entirely sure what you're needing to import, we figured if I took a comprehensive set, it would cover most of the obvious bases - herbology ingredients, live specimens, non-tradeable goods, intellectual property…" he paged through them and shrugged his shoulders.

"You did give me a letter, I realise, but I can read eight languages and although I know this is English, it looks like someone didn't remember to lift the quill between words." As he spoke he opened the notebook, turning pages before he extracted a letter addressed to Arcturus, which he had been trying to read accurately for the past few days since Arc had forwarded it on to him.

"Her native tongue's not gobbledegook is it?" Johann asked, "Because it's not far off." He leafed back through the notebook a few pages and lifted it beside the letter to compare his own writing in it so the letter.

It took Arc a moment to digest what he'd said about the writing. "Wait, what?" He looked around at Johann. "Katie? Oh, Katie, Zeus I forgot to warn you. Her handwriting is bad to the point that you can only read her writing if you know her. I should have told you that."

He gestured towards the letter. "Can I read it? She's probably written down what she can send over." Then he remembered his wet hands. "Uh, just hold it up for me, I don't really want to dirty anything."

Arc was still transferring slime, now on his third jar, and thus he packed the jar full as Johann held it up for him to read. "There are no live specimens, first thing," he said, his eyes going down the page of wonderfully bad handwriting. "So you can rest on that. Most of these are herbology ingredients and...my books? Oh, my notes. She must have finished reading them." Further down the list, there was an asterisk that was more likely to have been a distant relative of a sea urchin flattened on the paper. Arcturus read it, absently reaching out to hold the paper straight as if he didn't quite believe what he was reading.

"...you might need a non-tradeable goods form," he said, still occupied with reading, "because she's apparently included a deactivated deathpod seed for good luck. Really, Katie? How does one wrangle enough authorities to even have that happ-- forget it, I won't ask. She's a Research Liaison officer for a reason." He looked at Johann in apprehension. "Does that...is that even covered here? Or allowed? Deactivated is permanently dead, and no one's ever tried to grind up a deathpod seed husk short of exploding it, but..."

"This is normal?" Johann asked, raising both eyebrows. "No, I don't want you to dirty anything either. Hang on." He drew his wand from inside his jacket and the letter unravelled and hung absolutely flat in midair between them as if held by invisible hands.

As Arcturus squinted at the letter, hands still busy with slime, Johann's quill scratched efficiently in his notepad on the counter, recording the points with his right hand while his left hand pulled apart the stack of forms, fingertips running over the titles.

"… I won't ask. She's a Research Liaison officer for a reason." Arc looked up and over to him and he glanced up instinctively on catching the movement out of his the corner of his eye.

"I'm sure I can find a way." He assured Arcturus, tone optimistic. "Might need a supporting letter from St Mungo's to prove it's coming over for research purposes." He paused, recalling Miranda's attitude towards Arcturus the previous week.

"Heh, though we can cross that bridge if necessary," He gave a shrug and quickly sorted through the forms, setting aside some to his right away from Arcturus, ones for live specimens, in particular.

"What herbology ingredients?" He asked, selecting one of the forms to look over, "Any pollen, bulbs, soil samples, seeds, moulds, spores and such? I know the latter might come under live specimens, but as ingredients, we must declare them." He looked to Arcturus sharply, quill poised in his hand still over the notepad, hardly hesitating before firing off more questions.

"Also, the quantities, I'll need that for everything to verify we're nowhere near trade quotas. I very much doubt your own research will be, but have to state quantities. Katie will be able to to the correct export forms I'm sure, but at worst I can get someone at the Malaysian embassy to assist…"

He stopped, suddenly realising he was talking at Arcturus rather than with, lapsing into his work habits, where he rather forgot everyone didn't think at the same rate, or on the same route as his mind did.

"Ingredients. What ingredients. Let's start there." He gave the hint of a smile to Arcturus in apology.

"Are you just reading off the list? Why would I need soil samples?" Arc was amused, nevertheless, taking his eyes off the hovering letter for a moment to make his expression clear. "Things would have come to a pretty pass if I feed people with dirt. Anyway, she's written down quantities, I'll write them out for you once I'm done with this...slime." He was on his fifth jar. Arcturus was used to multitasking.

"Ingredients..." The healer quickly reread the letter, muttering slightly under his breath. "How does 'dried specimens of various fungi, roots, stems, leaves and flowers, including but not restricted to sliced, ground and/or carefully prepared otherwise'? She also mentioned 'powdered beetle horn, beetle wings, various dried invertebrate specimens'...I will be here all day if I keep reading, actually." He sighed and added half-jokingly, "Does 'mixed bag'apply?"

Sixth jar.

"Are you just reading off the list?" Johann looked round sharply.
"I'm not a herbologist, Arcturus, so I don't make assumptions."
"Things would have come to a pretty pass if I feed people with dirt."
"Heh," Johann nodded. "Thank you, if you rewrite her letter that would save me a bit of time later when I reconsult it."

He looked back to the forms while Arcturus began to mutter at the letter. His quill sped over his notebook, taking down the key points.

"Mixed bag?" Johann asked, looking round and raising an eyebrow, "If you want your research held by the Ministry for the foreseeable future and a large fine, then you can write mixed bag, but personally I'd prefer to get it right." He glanced momentarily to the increasing line of jars and moved his work further to the right away from the sink.

"Be a pretty pass if you administered a 'mixed bag' at the hospital too." Despite the nitpicking there was a little humour in his voice. "I'll wait for you to list them out for me on parchment. Not much point worrying about that for the moment. So, the research. Is it your own intellectual property or does MAPPERS have some stake in it as you were working with or for them? Are there copies or are they unique?" He was sifting forms again, "Do they contain anything highly political, restricted knowledge, official secrets, or the likes?" He glanced to Arcturus again, "Yes, of course I'm listing the official reasons - but if I do this work and it gets held at the border…" His eyes followed yet another jar.

Arc was very close to finishing - ninth jar, there was just a few handfuls of slime left and he was estimating the tenth would take it - but at this point he was starting to feel a little distracted. He stared at the full ninth jar and then resolutely screwed the lid shut on it.

"I share the property with them, as it's their funding there were copies made of my notes. As Katie says." He pushed the jar aside to join its brothers and sisters sitting neatly by the side of the sink Johann wasn't on. "But the ones she's sending back are my originals, and no they don't contain anything highly political or have official secrets...I doubt the plant life has a lot of significance on the ruling parties in Malaysia." He lifted out the basin of saltwater and poured the remaining slime into it without much delicacy before going to rinse his arms up to the elbow in the sink. "You may have to mark 'restricted knowledge' on the form, though, because there's a lot of observations about deathpods and as much as they are completely unavailable here and currently have little to no value on the market, even the black, they're still fairly potent. I'll keep my neck safe."

He dried his hands on a rag, snatched the letter out of the air and retrieved his wand from the side of the kitchen counter not invaded by jars. Quick flicks of his wand summoned a quill, ink and parchment, sent the jars - carefully - into the sink and turned on the tap to rinse them, while he sat down with the letter without much care and started scribbling like the parchment had done him a disgrace.

"I guess fish slime can wait for now," he remarked, not looking up at Johann.

"Mm." Johann replied, concentrating on his notes, listening to Arc carefully. He paused as Arc explained about the restricted knowledge, and paged through the form to examine the footnotes with respect to what Arcturus was explaining.

"Alright, I'll come back to you on that perhaps, but I'm sure I can explain away a bit to keep customs happy." Ever the optimistic about explaining things away. If the shipment was turned back, they could always get it through by other methods. Well, he could but Arc wouldn't stand for it.

Beside him, Arcturus rattled around washing up and filling the sink, the letter still hanging in the air between them. Johann continued to scrutinize the forms, setting another aside to the right, discarding it as non applicable to the application.

"I guess fish slime can wait for now."
"Hm?" Arc had left the sink, and Johann looked around to see Arc had taken a seat at the kitchen table, with the letter and was now scribbling with a quill.
"I best be able to read your writing, healer." He commented with a frown at the way Arc was rushing his quill across the page.

"And was that what it was? Whatever do you need, eig… ten jars of it for?" He asked peering into the sink from where he was stood to the right of it still.

Another form was discarded to the pile and the stack of ones to complete was growing smaller. He scooped up the lot and settled back at the same chair he'd chosen before, diagonally opposite Arcturus at the table, using the space. The non applicable forms made a swift retreat back into his bag by his feet.

"The list from her letter - all the quantities, is what I'll need, then I think I can probably do all this and bring it back to you for your relevant signatures, before filing it with my colleagues. I'll send them back to you next week." He didn't glance up at Arcturus at all as he explained, busy checking the forms over for any other information he'd need.

"Oh, and I need the financial value of the shipment, in case you need to pay taxes." He glanced over, "I know it's subjective, but I'll have to calculate on current market value in Britain for the list, so you may need to give a cursory estimate of the deathpod."

He stared across the table a moment.
"Look, if it's a bad night - just owl me the translation at the office next week and I'll clear off." Johann's expression was mildly irritated. Despite his working space looking cluttered and disorganised, his paperwork was meticulous and seeing someone butcher parchment grated.

"I'm not done with the slime, but I'm going to need it for my personal projects," Arc said as he copied down whatever Katie had written in her letter."It's highly valuable, I'm never going to find it anywhere else except the Aegean Sea since the fish it comes from only lives there and is accessible for the first fifteen years of life if you know where to find it and make friends with it, sure. Perks of taking a summer trip to the Cyclades and being able to speak Greek so the apothecaries can clean it up and sort out the transportation for you." He glanced at the forms Johann had at hand, now significantly diminished. "Having a certification from the Greek government helps, but this time around all I've got is MAPPERS and you, and that certainly does not count as the Malaysian government. Still, let's just hope this works."

He finished writing and handed the list to Johann. "I've added the quantities and value. However, the deathpod seed is non-tradeable under any and all circumstances and there is literally no market value whatsoever. Even if it were up for demand on the black market, which is very flourishing in Malaysia and I know because I personally made a visit, no one would dare even risk their lives to pick that sort of thing. I'd like to see what you can do with that." Despite his own personal urge to keep a distance from Johann, he couldn't help a wry smile of genuine interest. "I wouldn't be surprised if the plant would take a personal affront to how we have to slap a number on its parts, given how superbly cranky it is at any hour."

The healer put the quill back into the bottle and brought up a hand to his shoulder, absently massaging it as he sank a little into the chair. "That's the same handwriting I use to take notes in my potions log; it's marginally neater considering I don't have to occasionally take cover behind a bench. I know you can read it, mate, as opposed to Katie's." He looked at Johann, his head tilted downwards. "You don't know her. You know me."

Johann glanced over the parchment and gave a nod.
"Heh, I like to think I do." He replied, "I could have used spells to decode hers, but I don't trust their accuracy in such a situation."

He added another scribble to his notebook as a thought passed his mind, noting the lack of market value.

"And it will work." He told Arcturus firmly, "You've got the best working on this." No doubt he meant himself by the way he straightened his back and smiled slightly. He was the best that Arcturus could employ for free, quite probably - the staff in the Department didn't help with individual applications, it was every business, or individual for himself.

There was no way he'd get near to this deathpod thing. There were reasons things were given familiar names like that - like deadly nightshade. Johann's herbology knowledge was purely based on what he had to translate - names, etymology. He'd struggle to correctly identify a yellow dandelion without thinking for a few minutes.

"So you er, got to know this Katie quite well then?" Johann asked, folding the forms back to the front covers again. His expression wasn't irritated but mild interest, rather more informal all of a sudden. He had what he needed in the short term, it would just be hard graft from him for half a day to complete the next part.

"She just has unfortunately bad handwriting, the only reason why she hasn't been reprimanded for it is because she's friends with everyone in the society, and therefore they completely do not notice." The healer shrugged.

"So you er, got to know this Katie quite well then?" Arc had to quash his hilarity at the wording, though he knew what Johann really meant.

"Katie Leung[1]? I got to know her as much as I got to know my colleagues in six months, if it means anything to you." Arc shrugged. "Intense period of research for MAPPERS; when I wasn't doing research for them, I was doing my own. Like the rest of them, she said that if I ever needed her help, even if overseas, I can contact her and she will try her best." A thought occurred to him; he looked up. "She's in the photos I sent you. About five foot, black hair in a ponytail, always throws up a V-sign in every photo we take. Two years younger than I am, but looks three years younger than that. You have them, right?"

He lifted a hand and gingerly sniffed his fingers. They smelled like brine. "I might as well go finish the last jar, since I'm so close. I need it for my research, but I'm running out so I have to be careful with it." Arc cast a look in the direction of the nine jars now sitting beside the kitchen sink, drying. "My grandmother's offered to get some for me, but she's too old to go swimming to the edge of the continental shelf and play around with a juvenile eel. You can stay," he added quickly, realising that he'd probably been a bit too aloof with Johann due to his excitement of having to deal with the slime again - and feeling like he had to keep his distance although he didn't want to. "It'll only be a moment."

1.

Wiki

"… if it means anything to you." Johann's jaw set for a brief moment, that irritation still there just underneath the surface. He'd only asked to be friendly. Though ex boyfriends didn't get that freedom without sounding hostile, he supposed.

Now that he had Arc's attention the young wizard seemed content to rattle on at him about Greece and fish and his grandmother. Johann found himself squinting ever so slightly, rubbing at his left eye, tired.
"Yes, she is." He replied to Arc's mention of the photographs, "And Lix has them, I told her to keep them." Though he still had Arc's photos in his journal.

He let Arc go off and finish with his jars, going on about his grandmother. He sounded a little bit happier than he had the previous Sunday, though Johann hadn't come over the socialise, more to get what he needed done and then vanish. There was something awkward about being around Arcturus after reflecting on it. He didn't like lying to Balfour.

"You can stay, it'll only be a moment."
"Mhm." Johann indulged in another yawn while Arcturus was busy at the sink and consulted the time.
"You going over to Greece soon?" He asked, the yawn a little more evident in his tone. When he realised he straightened his face on purpose and pretended to be studying one of the forms again.