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Normally Taji ate her lunch out in the courtyard with the others -- it was a habit of most of the firstgraders who brought their lunches to sit beneath the "Wishing Tree" on the lawn and exchange sandwiches and cookies for bento boxes, chinese cartons, or burritos.

Taji had only stayed long enough to see what the others had brought, hoping someone's mother had made them lo mein with pork, and seeing none she made up an excuse about eating in with their teacher today and immediately fled in completely the wrong direction.

Her Lisa Frank lunchbox banged into the sides her knees as she, skipping, rounded a corner around the rabbit division of the school and into one of the many gardens. Her other hand was clamped over one of her skirt pockets to keep it steady and secure; it was not entirely shallow enough to hide the Clow card completely.

Eventually, once her view of the primary school property was obscured by a line of weeping willows (young logic, of course, dictated that if you could not see something, it could not see you), she dropped her lunchbox to the ground and, following after it into a graceful heap that folded her legs indian style beneath her, pulled her card out from her pocket.

"FrouFr--Deimos!" She demanded of it, shaking it a little with one hand while loosening the snaps of her lunchbox with her other. "Wake up! I snuck you a muffin, but you have to come out to get it."

When there was no response, she sighed and gently placed it on the ground, keeping a careful watch on The Chaos out of the corners of her eyes as she opened her lunchbox and pulled out the muffin in question. She dangled it teasingly in front of the card, "It is good and muffin-y and sugary and blueberry and I am going to EAT IT--"

"NO," was the scowling response as Deimos finally emerged to snatch the snack from her hands. Alternating between stuffing it in his mouth and halting completely to glare at her, he meandered up one of the nearby trees in lazy loop-de-loops that very often shifted his center of gravity.

Taji watched him leave, still half in awe at his presence at all, groping blindly through the grass next to her for her lunchbox.

"TSUKI!" Taji started; already in a precarious position, balancing on her left side as she stretched out for her lunchbox, she simultaneously jumped and recoiled and altogether landed in an uncoordinated heap on the grass.

Untangling her legs from each other, she rolled herself onto her back and rocked up and into a sitting position once more, one hand rubbing her head where she bumped it against the ground. "My muffin! Well, Zatsu's muffin. I took it for him." She gestured to the card to the ground and shrugged as if it were anything more than an inanimate piece of paper.

"Sit! Sit!" She demanded, patting a spot on the grass next to her before turning and once more reaching for her lunch box. Pulling it into her lap, she pulled out her pb&j sandwich, carefully unstuck it from the plastic it was wrapped in, and parted her jaws wide to take a bite of it.

However Deimos, who had perched himself on the underside of a tree branch with his hair blowing along with the twigs and leaves, was not feeling quite as amiable towards this new person who had come and promptly hogged his new Master (as loathe as he was to call her that)'s attention. It was, quite frankly, already in very short supply. Also, she had not referred to him by the correct name, and all these were reasons enough to prompt him to narrow his eyes and eye the lunch of the two children.

There was a sound like metal clanging -- a smooth one, like knives or blades sweeping across each other -- and Taji found herself with a mouthful of pizza sandwich instead of peanut butter and jelly. Tsuki would likewise find that his pizza was now topped with peanut butter and jelly instead of tomato, cheese, and whatever other toppings he had gotten.

"Bleeeegh!" Taji spat out her mouthful, holding the sandwich up to the light and leaning in very closely, closing the farther eye, to peer at it. "Your pizza spilled on my sammich! Now it's a..." She struggled to think of something appropriate. "Samza? Pizzwich? It is cheesy instead of oozy and peanut buttery and fruity and crunchy."

Well. Well. Tsuki liked his, maybe hers wasn't too bad. Taji wrinkled her nose and experimentally took another bite, chewing thoughtfully and swishing the food around in her mouth before swallowing. No, on second thought, it really wasn't too bad either -- kind of like a cold grilled cheese sandwich without the toast.

"Yeah! Zatsu likes it in the gardens, lots of places to hide," Taji finally continued obliviously, waving in the general direction of the tops of the trees. "Bushes! Flowers! Trees! Holes! PILES OF DIRT!"

Deimos growled, a low rumbling sound that set his wings quivering at the sheer force of his displeasure. They were not supposed to enjoy it -- where was the confusion? The panic?

Frustrated, one of the long strands of the weeping willow's branches angrily smacked Taji upside the head for her insolence and perpetual cheerfulness. Upon second thought, the same branch proceeded to steal Tsuki's jellyza as well, delivering it to the hidden mischevious Clow Spirit who proceeded to munch upon it discontentedly.

"Deimos!" Taji shrieked at the tree, getting to her feet with the intention of saying some angry words and shaking her fist and maybe even throwing a tantrum at him, which never worked but what else was she to do? She had no fruit to pelt at him!

"It's Deimos!" Taji huffed, storming over to the weeping willow and, seizing two sections of the branches in her hands, parted them like drawing aside a curtain.

The Clow spirit was situated in a particularly shadowy part of the tree -- the only thing that caught any kind of attention were his wings, right-side-up from this angle and glinting in the shallow light. It was not until Taji called his name again that he moved and then was immediately noticeable as a very odd and rainbow-splattered thing who was very definitely in the middle of taking a large bite of Tsuki's jellyza.

"Give that back!" Taji ordered, holding one hand out (and leaving the branches to sweep back around her right side, though Tsuki could still peer in over her left) for her friend's lunch.

There was a moment's pause, Deimos' jaws still agape, before he finally closed them very deliberately around the pb&j pizza and tore off a bite. "No." He said smugly, and promptly stuffing the entire pizza into his mouth, grabbed ahold of the bark with his tiny hands and skittered right-side-up and farther into the trees. It was only when he was at a higher vantage point -- and out of immediate reach of his Master or her annoying sidekick -- that he settled back down, wings stretching as he gazed lazily down from his throne upon the lowly peasants.

"I don't know," Taji answered bewilderedly, interjecting this with a very firm, "Don't worry -- you can have half of my sammich!" before returning to her confusion. "My brother said it was very powerful magic, and that I should be careful and not show him to anyone. He didn't want me to keep the card either, once he saw Deimos."

Clearly Cianan just wanted him all to himself. It wasn't fair, this was the first bit of magic that Taji managed to manifest herself, and she wasn't allowed to show off? Then again, she did realize that should she show him off to the entire school she would probably be required to share, and she was reluctant to do so with a maniacal lunch-stealing little demon with the wings on the wrong way.

"I did it anyway," she said proudly, momentarily forgetting about their current predicament. "I put him in a card and then I made him come out again. I have card magic. I guess I can't control it very well, if he is stealing food and whapping us, but I should try it on other cards!" Playing cards, pokemon cards, business cards -- the possibilities were endless --

Her train of thought was interrupted by a loud buzzer sound from Deimos. "The Chaos," he reminded her proudly, wings rustling, "Magic is mine." There was a short pause before the spirit added thoughtfully, as if realizing this for the very first time "...You're stupid."

"He went in there," Taji protested, wrinkling her nose at the memory of her first meeting with him, "By himself. He comes and goes when he wanna... I can't even make him come out when I am lonely." Not that Deimos was exactly a very good playmate -- he always cheated.

She brightened at the suggestions though, and immediately turned towards the Clow spirit and opened her mouth --

"No." said Deimos immediately and with an undercurrent of danger and exasperation to his voice.

Taji instead turned back to Tsuki. "My brother said I should be able to..." She squirmed in place, trying to think of the best words, "Be able to tell him what to do -- an' then I get into trouble when he doesn't listen to me!"

This was accentuated with a very rude noise from Deimos' direction, who had stuck his tongue out and blew a very wet raspberry in Taji's direction. "He is more likely to switch our underwear and laugh with the bullies," said the star spirit sadly.