MIT: Magic Incorporating Technology

A/N: A final (and short) chapter before I start on NaNoWriMo. This year it\'s an original story, so with any luck I\'ll be able to get it published sometime next year. Maybe. It\'s pretty dark.



I will be coming back to this when NaNo\'s done, don\'t worry. I have a feeling, though, that we\'re just going to skip to the main points. I made the mistake of writing out the final chapter, and now it\'s hard to do the chapters in between.



So, here we have Ash leaving MIT. Sad faces all round, please. Fight is directly inspired by a fight that happened in the game I run, and which was extremely amusing.



Chapter Thirteen: Getting Kicked Out



"I don\'t believe this..." Harry groaned as he covered his face with his hands. "How could you be so stupid?"



"Wasn\'t my fault," Ash muttered grumpily. "He started it."



"Only because you kept insulting his mother."



"How was I to know he\'d take it so badly?"



Harry sighed. They\'d been doing so well for the last six months - and then Ash had gotten on the bad side of Sullivan Gale, an American-Italian who wanted to be a performer. Sully was normally an easy-going guy, always with a story to tell, a consummate actor. The problem was that he was very close to his family, so when Ash insinuated that he\'d slept with Sully\'s mother, things went downhill fast.



"You insulted his mother," Harry reiterated. "People never take that well. And then you proceeded to beat the crap out of him."



Ash had the grace to look a little uncomfortable at that. He hadn\'t left any permanent marks on Sully, but the guy had been only half-conscious for the next hour.



"I don\'t even know why you did it!" Harry continued to berate Ash. "I know that you get worked up at times, but usually sex is enough to calm you down again! Why was it necessary to get into a fight?"



"Had to make sure I could still do it, didn\'t I?" Even to his ears, that excuse sounded weak. "Look, sometimes I just gotta fight something. And this time Sully happened to be in the wrong place and left an opening that I couldn\'t help going for."



"Right," Harry sighed. He finally allowed Ash to pull him into a hug, even though he was still very frustrated with his boyfriend. "You realise that if you get into one more fight you\'re going to be expelled, right?"



"I know," Ash nodded. "It\'ll be okay. I promise."



-MIT-



"What was it you said about it being okay?"



Ash winced at Harry\'s angry tone. He was packing his things, having been told that morning that he was being kicked out of MIT.



"You promised me that you\'d stop fighting people! Or at least take up a combat sport to do it safely."



It didn\'t seem like the Brit was going to stop the berating him any time soon, but Ash figured that he deserved it. He\'d only managed four months before getting into another fight, only this time it had been with one of the teaching assistants. Harry didn\'t know what the fight was over, and he was fairly sure that he didn\'t want to know either.



After a while, Harry trailed off into silence and sat on the now-empty desk. He still had a bit over two years left in his degree - more if he wanted to go on for more qualifications - and he didn\'t want to waste everything he\'d done so far. If Ash asked him to, though, he\'d be sorely tempted to leave with him.



"Where are you going to go?" Harry finally asked softly.



Ash shrugged, then offered a small grin.



"Figure I\'ll crash at the Roadhouse for a while, get my bearings. Then maybe apply somewhere else. Or not, might just look for a job. Dunno really."



"Here," Harry scribbled something out on a piece of paper. "It\'s one of my Muggle bank accounts. I\'ll make sure there\'s always money in it, use it if you have to."



"Harry..."



"Don\'t be stupid and prideful," Harry cut him off before he could protest. "I know that you don\'t have much in the way of savings. I have enough to last me the rest of the century without having a job to top the accounts up, you dipping into it now and then isn\'t going to make a difference. I don\'t want you starving or going without shelter."



"Okay," Ash nodded, though he was fairly sure it wouldn\'t get that desperate. He was a computer geek after all, he could scrape a living somehow. Harry did have a habit of being over dramatic about some things, but Ash knew the best way to distract him. "I don\'t have to be off campus until morning. Gonna stay and keep me company?"



"Of course," Harry smiled and moved in for a kiss. It was slow and gentle, as their hands ran over each other, committing details to memory. Neither were really sure if they could keep up a relationship without seeing each other frequently. It was going to be difficult for them - but they\'d been together for over a year and a half now, so Harry at least wasn\'t willing to give up yet.