TW: Urban Magic Yogs

Will breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped off the bus, hair still damp, clothes slightly wetter. As he fumbled for his keys, fishing them out of his pocket, he muttered to himself. "That is the last time I let Smith pick the spot for a picnic. Never sit with a river fae by a river, you'll just end up getting wet."

He finally found the right key, inserting it into the lock, the door swinging open with a familiar and comforting squeak.

"I'm home! Uncle Xeph?"

"In the kitchen, Will!"

Will kicked off his shoes at the door and dropped his bag in a chair. He sighed as the warm atmosphere of the house settled over him, not just the temperature, but the charms that were etched into the foundations of the very building.

He found his uncles right where Xephos had said, in the kitchen. Xephos stood over the stove, mixing together some kind of soup. He slid diced up pieces of chicken into the pot while a large spoon hovered over it, stirring the soup itself without any physical help.

Will didn't even blink, reaching over to embrace Honeydew who had momentarily stopped fixing a bowl of noodles to hug Will.
"Will, you're just in time," said Xephos. "I'm almost done with dinner. Its chicken noodle soup."

"Gee," said Will, wearing a sly smile. "I couldn't tell." Xephos simply waved him off. "Enough with your sass, go find Lal, and tell him it's time for supper.
Will nodded, exiting the kitchen and bounding up the stairs. He raised his fist, ready to knock on Lalna's door, when suddenly, Will's own bedroom door open. Will turned, and saw Lalna exiting his room, something tucked up under his arm.

"Lalna?"

The blonde jumped at Will's voice, not seeing him when he first exited the bedroom.

"Will! Man you scared me! Why are you sneaking up on people like that?"

The technomancer fixed Lalna with his own questioning look. "A better question is, what were you doing in my room, and what's that you got there?" Lalna suddenly looked quite sheepish and tried to hide whatever it was from Will. "N-Nothing," he stammered.

Before Lalna could get the 'nothing' behind his back, Will lashed out and yanked it from him. He stared down at the cover of his own college level chemistry textbook. "Why do you have..."
Will's words fell short when he began to flip through the book... and found every page blank!

Not a single one still contained it's information. Will snapped a glare at Lalna and grew red in the face.

"LALNA, YOU PIG!!!!"

Lalna visibly shook under Will's yelling, wishing he could disappear. "How many times have I said 'Don't eat the words from my textbook'? I have an exam for this exact subject tomorrow, and I was gonna cram tonight!"

Lalna looked down at the floor, suddenly very interested in his shoes. In a voice that was really quiet for the usually charismatic and boisterous scientist, he said, "I couldn't resist myself. You know how good a textbook is to me. It's like dangling an all you can eat buffet in front of a starving man."

Will calmed down just a little, understanding Lalna's literal insatiable thirst for knowledge. Will sighed as he rubbed his eyes. "Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you, Lal. I just need to get a good grade in this class, if I don't... there's no way I'll be able to go on next year."

Lalna nodded, feeling even worse now. "I know this bookstore a few blocks away. If I ran, I could make it before they close. I'm pretty sure they carry that textbook." Lalna said it quickly, like a peace offering.
Will thought about it for a moment, face screwing up in thought. Finally, he relented. "Fine, if you go buy my a new book, with your own money, we'll be square." Lalna grinned, back to his excited self. He gave Will a quick hug, grabbed his jacket and was out the door before Will could say 'chemistry.'

***

Almost an hour later, Lalna came running into the house, a bag in his arm. The other three occupants of the house sat in the living room. Will fiddled with a Rubik's cube, Honeydew flipped through a magazine called titled 'Better Caves and Mines', and Xephos sipped from a cup of tea while a book floated in front of his face, the pages turning themselves when he was ready.

Will looked up at Lalna and reached out a hand to him. "You find it?" Lalna nodded quickly, a thousand watt smile on his face. "Yep! Also got something for me too!" Lalna held out the textbook to Will, and he accepted it, instantly putting down the cube and opening the book. Will nodded to himself as he looked over everything, making sure it was the right book and it was. He closed it, and noticed a tag on the cover. He read it, eyes widening in shock when he realized what Lalna had done.

"Lal, this is the tag for the bookstore all the way across the city! Didn't you go to the one a couple blocks away?" Lalna nodded, shuffling his feet as he didn't want Will to find out what he had done. "Yeah, uh, they didn't have it... so I ran to the other one."

It was then that Will finally noticed the sheen of sweat on Lalna and how his chest moved up in down, obviously taking very deep breaths to keep from panting. Touched by Lalna's kindness, he stood up, embracing him. "You didn't have to run all that way for me, y'know that right?"

Again, Lalna shuffled his feet. "Well, I felt bad about it and I didn't want you to flunk, so it's okay."

Will shook his head, a smile on his face. "You're the best, Lal. Thanks again." Lalna returned his smile and reached into the bag, producing a myriad of comic books, cheap biographies, and magazines. "Besides, it wasn't totally about you," said Lalna, his playful tone giving away that he was kidding. Lalna bounded onto the couch, flipped open a biography, and placed his hand on a random page. The words on the page shook, like rippling water, and began to melt. The words melted into such a mess of black liquid as it seemed to be magnetically attracted to Lalna's hand.

The black liquid squeezed itself out from the other pages and went straight for Lalna's hand. The black mess climbed up his arm, looking like it was under the skin. As it began to climb, Will could see that the mess formed back into individual words, before fading underneath Lalna's skin. Once Lalna had drained the book completely, he looked up at Will, a cheeky smile on his face.

"Lal, you're like a book vampire."

Credit to OnyxWerewolf on Ao3