Chokers

Chapter Twenty-Three

Disclaimer: Magi does not belong to me.

A/N: I have a beta, kheelwithit! I recommend you look at her stories, she has amazing characterization and writing style.

Warnings:

Slavery (sort of), foul language, romantic relationships between males (though not for quite some time or maybe not at all), potential OOC, blood, gore, death, child abuse, abuse…please tell me if there's something I forgot…

Alibaba was pacing again, Hakuryuu noted as he did his usual stretches and the warm up that he always performed before going into his katas. His spear wouldn't be given back to him, but he could always work with a mop or a broom even if the weights weren't quite the same as his own weapon.

"Aaaagggh," Alibaba groaned, clutching at his head. Hakuryuu sat down, leaning forward to touch his toes.

One…Two…Three…Four…Five…count to ten and repeat.

"Nooo, that doesn't work." Hakuryuu got to his feet, then stepped forward with his right foot and lowered into a lunge, putting his palms flat against the ground.

One…Two…Three…Four…Five…count to ten and repeat.

Other foot. One…Two…Three…Four…Five…

"I-I couldn't possibly do that!" The blonde sputtered, blushing bright red and not seeming to notice that Hakuryuu was in the same room as he was.

The scarred prince started on a kata, moving slowly and smoothly as he could and doing his best to ignore Alibaba's frenetic pacing. It was unfortunate that became quite difficult when the blond started banging his head against the wall as he muttered to himself.

Finally, he gave up on finishing his kata and turned to stare at his friend in a mixture of concern and sheer exasperation. He'd had enough, really.

"Alibaba-dono, what is the problem this time?" he asked, eyebrows raised, wooden fingers drumming on the makeshift spear in agitation.

Alibaba stopped in his tracks, staying frozen for a full second before turning to stare at Hakuryuu with a strange glint in his eye. The dark haired prince gave him an uneasy look, suddenly rethinking the wisdom of asking that question.

"Hey, Hakuryuu… Come practice with me, would you?"

"P-practice? W-what are you talking about?!" Hakuryuu asked in alarm as the other man pulled him to the inner, more private parts of the rooms where people wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying. "H-hey!"

O.O.O.O.O

"I've been thinking about this a lot recently," Alibaba said, a serious expression on his face as he put his hand on his chin. He paused dramatically and cleared his throat. Across from him, Hakuryuu sat silently on the bed, observing him with a strange expression on his face. "I think that you're beautiful-"

The scarred prince snorted and then covered his mouth when Alibaba shot him a look, waving for him to continue with one hand.

"You make me laugh-" Hakuryuu was shaking, his eyes watering. The other man mustered up his most intimidating glare, ending up with a mixture of a glower and a pleading look.

"-and I really like talking to you," the blonde continued, and was about to say more when Hakuryuu put his hand up in the air in the universal symbol for 'stop!' and then doubled over, unable to continue.

"O-Okay, hahaha," he gasped after a moment, finally recovering from his burst of laughter. "Y-you can keep going now. Pfft!"

"Yeah, no," Alibaba responded dryly as he stared at the other man, who looked like he was dying of laughter on the bed. "I don't think I will."

It took almost a full five minutes before Hakuryuu managed to calm down enough to choke out, "Tha- that might work, I-I think."

The blond prince groaned and shook his head. Laughter was definitely not a good reaction to a confession of love – well, it was preferable to tears or anger, but laughter was…not a good thing. His friend wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and then patted him consolingly on the shoulder.

"D-don't worry," he reassured. "I-I'm sure it's just because…"

Oops. He covered his mouth with another snort of laughter.

"No, it's definitely going to fail," Alibaba sighed out, starting to emit a depressed aura and visibly drooping, staring at the ground in despair. "Why did I ever think I could do this…"

"Well, I suppose we could call Hakuei-nee, she'd be quite happy to help you," the scarred prince suggested with a shrug, only for Alibaba to vehemently signal his denial as fast as he could. The former prince of Balbadd was not at all eager to listen to another of those lectures; one was more than enough, thank you very much.

"Ah…" Hakuryuu thought for a second, and then spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "You could just go with the traditional and give her flowers. The speech really wasn't that bad, so just try."

Alibaba could only sigh, getting up and dusting himself off. He supposed that would have to do – it wasn't like he could really think of anything better anyways. "Thanks for the…uhhh….help. A-and don't tell anyone, okay?!"

Hakuryuu's face slowly transformed into that of a person who had blackmail material, and probably wouldn't be afraid to use it. The blond winced. He was going to regret practicing his confessions with Hakuryuu later, he just knew it.

Leaving the room, he moved towards the area of the palace that had been specially sectioned off for the magicians to practice in- Titus would probably be there, although Sphintus wouldn't as he would be in the medical wing like the rest of his healers.

As he got closer, he heard the explosions and shouting that was typical of the magicians in the alliance – some of them had been rather hesitant to go full out in practice at first, but the war had beaten that out of them quickly. It was either train or die, after all. He shook himself out of his morbid thought process; he wasn't here for battle or training, he was here to…to… get flowers.

"Alibaba, what are you doing here?" The former prince looked up as Titus walked over, spells splashing harmlessly against his borg, staff held loosely in one hand.

"Er… you see, it's almost winter but…I need flowers," Alibaba admitted, scratching at the back of his head in mild embarrassment. The magi's eyebrows rose in surprise, furrowed in thought, and then he laughed.

"Aah, so you finally got around to it," Titus chortled, and then cast the other man a sly look. The blond gave him a dirty glare. He didn't need reminding that he was apparently the last one to know, thank you very much.

"But…you know…if you want flowers, the life magicians are all mostly with Sphintus."

Alibaba groaned in dismay. The healer would probably take this chance to tease him and heckle him with everything he had, as if the nickname wasn't already bad enough. Seeing his expression, Titus laughed and continued, "But I think I know enough life magic to get you a few flowers."

The sigh of relief was predictable, but the blonde magi smiled anyways. A few minutes later, Alibaba was leaving the training grounds, carrying a large bouquet of crimson roses in his hands. Titus blinked and looked to the side as he heard the clink of armored boots on the stone tiles.

"Myers-sensei," he greeted cheerfully. She gave him a brisk nod in reply – of course she wasn't actually his teacher, but most of the magicians in the army and even some of the soldiers called her that.

"How many tries do you think it'll take that boy before he actually manages to do something?" she asked, her voice dry as they stared after his retreating back. Titus shrugged.

"I gave him a lot of flowers, so it should be fine," he told her, expression falling a little as he watched Alibaba struggle to balance the flowers, nearly sending the entire bouquet scattering over the courtyard as he dodged a stray spell. "…And who knows, he might surprise us."

A/N:

Eeep. Please don't kill me.

I know this is horribly late =.= It's been almost three weeks now, but I have bad news. It's nearing exams for me, so this story won't be updated regularly anymore until they are over, although I'll try to keep it close to a week as possible.

On another note, the new Magi chapters don't match up for my plan for the last battle at all, so they will be decidedly AU in terms of ability.

FireLark