Revelations and Narrow Misses

"This isn't the place for this!" the bespectacled boy hissed back, quickly excusing himself from his spot behind the counter and dragging the redhead by the wrist past the neatly stocked shelves into the break room, slamming the door once they were inside.

Amelie had been heeding Takuma no mind as he did so. After all, it would have been best to keep this man's location secret. Even though she didn't know what this man wanted (even though she recognised him), surely a crowd would be coming after him soon...
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Takuma panted hard as Ember picked this moment to come out of his shirt pocket and sit on the table. She was making a secretive smile to herself as she did so but she hid it with her hands.

"Amelie could've heard that, you know. She doesn't know the existence of magic," he finally burst out. He was glaring at the visitor, muttering through gritted teeth just loud enough for him to hear, just as this man leant back in his fold out seat. He'd casually put his hands behind his head and laid his right booted foot over his left.

"That's such a pity, she seems like someone who could keep a secret. Unlike that fairy, Quartz," he added, causing Amelie to become just as flustered as Takuma.

"Quartz?!" the fairy exclaimed. "What are you hiding, Kris?!" With this, she clamped her hands over her mouth.

At this, the revelation sent them into a momentary bout of silence. First off, Ember shouldn't have known this man - Kris Sheehan, the man in front of them, was a (human) celebrity, mainly a talk show host...he was almost everywhere, but he wasn't involved in Takuma's beloved anime, which was why he didn't recognise such a famous figure. Secondly, this talk show host shouldn't have known about the existence of fairies in general.

"Quartz went looking for you, y'know," the man finally added to the fairy, shoving his hands into his pockets of his jeans. "That's how I got here - I nicked one of his gems with your magic so I could cloak my presence for a while, and I happened to gain your location along with that."

Ember grumbled, her wings bristling and crinkling with anger at the mere thought of the one they called Quartz. "That dependent. How old does he think he is?"

"According to his calculations, he was twenty in human years and you were twenty two," Kris added, a smirk on his face, while Takuma grimaced with the realisation she was a full three years older than him and two years younger than Kris. "Just goes to show you how used to humans he is. I think that was my fault, keeping him in my house, though," the redhead quickly noted. (It was a well-known fact Kris lived in a wooden lodge located in the middle of a rainforest.)

"After this, we have to go find him, okay, Takashiro?" she barked to the boy in question when she tried to ignore Kris' smug face and the glint in his emerald eyes. Her face was bright red but she'd teared up. The boy was so confused at her mixed emotions however, he could only stare blankly at her. "Oh, alright!" her wings bristled again as she put her hands on her hips and turned to face him, sending her tiny tears flying. "Quartz is completely powerless for a fairy, but he does produce gems that can be used for storing things. Once you use magic without the owner's permission, like you can do with Quartz's gems, you can learn the owner's exact location, and knowing how much he tags along with me," she rolled her eyes at this, "he must be forking out my location left and right. From the looks of things, he's also given away the incantation to use my reversal spells too..."

Kris cleared his throat to cut her off. "I was hoping you could at least lengthen the spell I've already got, seeing as this one's already been wearing off enough for Amelie to recognise me."

With another reluctant grumble ("Lemme guess, you used my magic to overwrite your own fame"), Ember whipped out a miniature wand and murmured what Takuma assumed to be the reversal spell under her breath. A shower of golden motes covered Kris, then dissolved within a few seconds.

Takuma blinked in confusion. Nothing had happened from this spell...at least, nothing that he could perceive.

"She's got you completely wrapped around her microscopic finger," Kris added with a wink to Takuma when the man took his leave. Ember mouthed "Get out!" at him just as he was already gone.

While the bespectacled boy puzzled out all the new information in his head, there were a few things that didn't quite add up.

"Is it possible for these reversal spells to go wrong?" he asked the fairy. She nodded curtly.

"If you think that's what Kris did to become famous, you've got part of it wrong. Miscasts only last about one hour and are completely over the top in their reversal. Maybe it was simply his own hard work?" the fairy hypothesised.

"A-Are you 'attached' to this Quartz in any way?" Takuma swiftly changed the subject, not knowing what to think about what she'd guessed. (In stark contrast to Kris, Takuma averted his gaze from her as he spoke of the sensitive matter.) "You normally refer to me as 'human' but this time you referred to me by last name, so you must really-"

She huffed and zoomed back into his pocket. "Just because I ended up as Quartz's minder way back when we were growing up...no, I'm not!" Takuma jumped at her outburst. "For that matter, just because I like pretty boys like Kris doesn't mean I like you as well! Especially not for such a superficial thing as your looks!"

The fairy squirmed about in her enclosed space for a little while before silently settling into a position. Takuma took this as a sign to get back to work, but her fidgeting suggested all her answers were false.