Title: City of Demeter's Tree
Genre: fantasy, romance, hurt/comfort
Rating: T for language, mild violence, and some suggested themes
Pairing: JudaiXJohan (spiritshipping); hinted others
Summary: When sixteen-year-old Johan Andersen heads out to the Domino Club, he hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers with odd powers and brandishing bizarre weapons. Johan knows he should call the police, but it's hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but him. Equally startled by his ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as demigods: a race of creatures with a human parent and a godly parent dedicated to rid the world of monsters, and to stop the wicked Demeter from finding the Seed to her Tree. Within twenty-four hours, Johan's mother disappears and Johan himself is almost killed by a grotesque monster. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mortals like Johan and his mother? And how did Johan suddenly get the Sight? The demigods, and the Olympians, would like to know...
Me: Okay, my dear, sweet readers! Thank you all for clicking, for this is our first story using Judai as the seme for more than one scene or chapter, so we hope everyone will enjoy it!
Lucy: If this chapter set-up seems familiar, that's because we sorta fused The Mortal Instruments and Greek mythology, but we think everyone will find it interesting.
Me: The story starts off in a dance club, where Johan, our star hero, meets with the demigods for the first time!
Lucy: And has his first encounter with the amazing Judai Yuki!
Chapter One: The Domino Effect
"You've got to be joking," the bouncer said, folding his arms across his gigantic chest. He peered down at the boy in the blue zip-up jacket and shook his shaved-and-tattooed head. "You can't bring that thing in here."
The sixty or so teenagers in line outside the Domino Club leaned forward and to the side to eavesdrop. It was a long wait to get into the teens-only club, especially on a Saturday, but not much generally happened in line. The bouncers were fierce and would come down on anyone who they deemed would start trouble. Sixteen-year-old Johan Andersen, standing in line with his best friend, Ruby, leaned forward along with everyone else, hoping for some excitement.
"Oh, come on!" The kid hoisted up a plastic stake, pointed at one end. "It's fake. It's all part of my costume."
The bouncer raised an eyebrow. "Which is…?"
The boy grinned. He was normal-enough-looking, Johan thought, for Domino. He had dark green hair that stuck up in all directions like a startled starfish, but no elaborate facial tattoos or thick metal rods through his eyebrows or lips. "I'm a demon slayer." He pushed on the plastic stake, which bent easily in his hand.
The boy's wide eyes were too yellow to be human, Johan noticed: the color of the sun at its peek. Contact lenses, probably. But then why did they seem to glow whenever he blinked? The bouncer shrugged, suddenly bored. "Whatever. Go in."
The boy slid past him, slick as an eel and quick as a cat. Johan liked the way he slid on the pavement, the way he moved. He didn't like the creepy glare one brown-haired Goth was giving him as he stalked by, right past the bouncer with a blond girl and a tall boy with a cowboy hat on following him.
"You thought he was cute," Ruby teased, sounding victorious. "Admit it."
Johan elbowed her in the ribs, but didn't answer.
Inside, the club was all foggy with dry ice, flashing colored lights playing on the dance floor, turning it into a wonderland of flashing pinks and greens, decadent blues and bright, flashy golds and yellows.
The boy in the blue jacket stoked the tip of the knife in his hands, an idle smile playing with his lips. It had been way too easy—a bit of magic to make the weapon seem harmless and voila! The moment the bouncer stared into his eyes, he was in. Of course, he could have gotten in without all the trouble, but that's what made it fun—fooling the humans and slithering past them in a form they deemed safe.
Not that humans didn't have their uses. The boy's golden eyes scanned the dance floor, where slender limbs clad in leather and black cloth appeared and disappeared in revolving columns of smoke as the humans danced. Girls tossed their long hair, boys swung their leather-clad hips, and bare skin glittered with sweat. Vitality just eked off them, waves of energy filling him with a drunkenness he never wanted to let go. His lips drew back into a smirk. They had no idea how lucky they were. They didn't know what it was like to eke life out into a dead world, to pour sun into a land deprived of light. Their lives burned as bright as candle flames—and were just as easy to snuff out.
His hand tightened on the knife blade- not that he really even needed the knife- and he had just begun to step out onto the dance floor when a girl broke away from the mass of mortal dancers and began walking toward him. She was beautiful, for a human—long hair nearly the precise color of gold, shimmering sunny eyes. Floor-length blue gown, the kind women use to wear when the world was younger. A golden bangle hung around her wrist and a bracelet wrapped around her upper arm. Around her neck was a silver chain, on which hung a dark red pendant the size of a baby's hand. He only had to narrow his eyes to know that it was real—real and precious. His mouth started to water as she approached. Vital life force surged from her like blood from an open wound. She smiled, passing him, and beckoned with her eyes. He turned to follow her, tasting the phantom flavor of her death on his lips.
It was always easy. He could already feel the power of her evaporating life pulsing through his veins like wildfire. Humans were so stupid. They had something so precious, and they barely safeguarded it at all. They threw away their lives for money, for packets of addicting powder, for a stranger's charming grin. The girl was a pale ghost against the multicolored back-drop. She reached the wall and turned, bunching up her skirt in her hands, lifting it as she grinned at him. Under the dress, she wore strappy Greek sandals.
He sauntered near her, his skin prickling with her presence. Up close she wasn't so perfect: He could see the mascara smudges under her eyes, the sweat sticking her hair to her slender neck. He could smell her mortality, the sweet rot of eminent death. Another scent was there, but the mortality overpowered it. Got you, he thought with a silent chuckle.
A cool smile played with his lips. She moved to the side, and he could see that she was leaning against a closed door. NO ADMITTANCE—STORAGE was scrawled across it in bright green paint. She reached behind her for the knob, turned it, slid inside. He caught a glimpse of stacked boxes, tangled wiring. He glanced behind him- no one was looking. The nearest people were a brown-haired Goth and a tall dark-haired boy wearing a cowboy hat. But they didn't matter; they weren't paying attention to him. So much better if she wanted privacy.
He slipped into the storage room, unaware that he was about to be pursued.
"So," Ruby said, "pretty sweet music, huh?"
Johan didn't answer. They were dancing—or what passed for it—a lot of swaying back and forth with the occasional lunges toward the floor as if one of them had dropped a contact lens—in a space between a group of teenage girls in metallic corsets, and a young American couple who were making out passionately, their colored hair extensions tangled together like vines. A boy with a lip piercing and a Hello Kitty backpack was handing out free packets of herbal ecstasy, his long hair blowing in the breeze from the wind machine. Johan wasn't paying attention to their immediate surroundings—his eyes were on the blue-haired boy who'd talked his way into the club, the one the brown-haired Goth had been glaring at. The blue-haired boy prowled the club as if looking for something. There was something about the way he moved that reminded him of something…
"I, for one," Ruby went on as if Johan were paying attention. "am enjoying myself."
This seemed very likely. Ruby, as always, blended in with the club, in a black tank top and a faded purple skirt. Her naturally curly hair was long and naturally purple. She looked less as if she were heading off to a chess club, which she actually enjoyed doing, and more like she were contemplating the powers of darkness.
"Mmm-hmm." Johan, on the other hand, stood out in the middle of the club. He always stood out, dressed in a pair of black jeans and a white T-shirt with the words OLD NAVY across the front. His hair certainly matched the setting—a natural neon blue. Many people doubted him when he told them this was his natural hair color. Johan wasn't even really sure why he came to the Domino Club- maybe it was to get away from boring old life. To walk on the edge of danger every now and again. But he was always too shy to talk to anyone except Ruby, who would be a social butterfly if Johan wasn't hanging around.
The blue-haired boy straightened up suddenly, snapping to attention like a hunting dog. Johan followed his line of sight until he spotted the girl in the blue dress.
She was gorgeous, the kind of person Johan would've liked to draw—tall and as slim as a ribbon, with a long spill of golden hair. Even at this distance, Johan could see the red gem around her neck, beating like a separate heart.
"I feel," Ruby went on, "that DJ Duke is doing a great job. Don't you agree?"
Johan rolled his eyes but didn't respond. His attention was on the girl in the blue dress. Through the darkness, smoke, and artificial fog, the girl stood out like a beacon. No wonder the boy was following her as if in a trance—oblivious to everything else, even the two dark shapes that followed right at his heels.
Johan slowed his dancing and stared. He could just make out that the two shapes were boys, tall and wearing black clothes. He didn't know how he could've known that they were following the blue-haired boy, but he just knew. He could see the pace they kept after him, the way they tried not to be spotted. None of the other dancers seemed to notice them or even move out of their way as they passed, as if they didn't see them.
"Meanwhile," Ruby went on, "I've wanted to tell you that I've been considering getting a sex change. And that I realized I might be a lesbian and that I'm secretly doing your mom. Just thought I should let you know."
The girl reached the wall, and was opening a door marked NO ADMITTANCE. She beckoned the blue-haired boy to her and they slipped inside. It wasn't anything Johan hadn't seen before, a couple sneaking off to make out in dark corners of the club—but what made it even weirder was that they were being followed.
He raised himself up on tiptoe, trying to see over the crowd. The two guys had stopped at the door and seemed to be conferring with each other. They were the brown-haired Goth boy and the one with the cowboy hat Johan had seen glaring at the blue-haired boy outside at the door a short while ago. The brown-haired Goth reached into his jacket and drew out something long and shiny from a pocket. A knife.
"Ruby!" Johan shouted, and seized her arm.
"What?" Ruby looked alarmed. "I'm not really doing your mom, you know. I was just trying to get your attention. I mean, not that I wouldn't sleep with her if I was a lesbian. She's a very pretty woman for her age."
"Do you see those guys?" He pointed wildly, almost hitting a curvy Asian girl who was dancing nearby. She shot him an evil look. "Sorry—sorry!" He turned back to Ruby. "Do you see those two guys over there by the door? The brown-haired Goth and the tall dark-haired one in the cowboy hat?"
Ruby squinted crimson eyes, then shrugged. "I don't see anyone."
"There are two of them. They were following the guy with the blue hair—"
"The one you thought looked cute?"
"Oh, shut up, Ruby! That's not the point! The Goth pulled a knife!"
"Are you sure?" Ruby arched her neck up, still squinting toward the door. "Johan, I don't see anyone there."
"I'm positive!"
Suddenly all business, the "elder-sister" Johan knew she acted like, Ruby squared her shoulders. "I'll go get one of the security guards. You stay here." She strode away, pushing through the crowd of angry dancers.
Johan turned just in time to see the brown-haired Goth slip through the NO ADMITTANCE door, his friend right on his heels. Johan looked around; Ruby was still trying to push her way across the dance floor, but was making no progress. Even if he yelled now, no one would hear him; and by the time Ruby got back, something terrible might already have happened to the blond girl. Biting hard on his lower lip, Johan started to wriggle through the crowd.
"What's your name?"
She turned and smiled. What faint light there was in the storage room spilled down through high barred windows smeared with dirt and dust. Piles of electrical cables, along with broken bits of mirrored disco balls and discarded paint cans littered the floor.
"Asuka."
"That's a lovely name." He walked toward her, stepping carefully among the wires in case any of them were live. In the faint light she looked half-transparent, just a golden angel wrapped in royal blue. It would be a pleasure to make her fall… "I haven't seen you around here before."
"You're asking if I come here often?" She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. There was some sort of bracelet on her wrist with a set of strange runes, one of them looking like a Greek symbol the blue-haired boy was all too familiar with.
He froze. "You—"
He didn't finish. He couldn't. She moved with lightning swiftness, striking out at him with her open palm, a blow to his chest that would have sent him down gasping if he'd been a mortal. He staggered back, and now there was something in her hand, a coiling whip made of celestial bronze that glinted as she brought it down, curling around his ankles, bringing him off his feet. He hit the ground, writhing in pain, the hated metal biting deep into his flesh. She laughed, standing over him, and he dizzily thought that he should've known. No human girl would wear what she did, and the other scent he'd smelled before had been coming from her. She'd worn that dress—a borrowed one, no doubt—to hide her scent, half of her scent.
Asuka tugged on the whip, tightening it. Her smile glittered like poison. "He's all yours, boys."
A low laugh sounded behind him, and now there were hands on him, hoisting him to his feet, throwing him against one of the pillars. He could feel the damp stone at his back. His hands were pulled behind him, his wrists bound by celestial bronze wire. Ad he struggled, someone walked around the side of the pillar and into his view; a boy, young as Asuka, and just as lovely. The one the boy'd seen dancing before he'd foolishly gone after Asuka. His eyes shone like chips of amber. The other boy worked on his wrists, binding them tight. "So," said the brown-haired Goth. "Are there any more with you?"
The blue-haired boy could feel blood welling up under the too-tight metal, making his wrists slippery. "Any other what?"
"Oh, come on now." The amber-eyed boy held up his hand, and his dark sleeves slipped down, showing the silver bracelet he wore with the face of the gorgon Medusa carved. The face sent shivers down the blue-haired boy's spine. Only one person in the world had a bracelet like that- one that bore resemblance to the same shield that the goddess Athena wore, the one she'd built after she'd received the head of the gorgon from Perseus. "You know who I am."
Far back inside his skull, the boy's second set of teeth started to grind.
"Child of Zeus," he hissed.
The brown-haired Goth grinned all over his face and pointed his index and middle finger at the blue-haired boy, winking one of his eyes. "Gotcha."
Johan pushed the door to the storage room open, and stepped inside. For a moment, he thought it was deserted. The only windows were high up and barred; faint street noises came through them, the sound of honking horns and squealing tires. The room smelled like old paint, and a heavy layer of dust covered the floor, marked by smeared shoe marks.
There's no one here, he realized, looking around in bewilderment. It was cold in the room despite the August heat outside. His back was icy with sweat. He bent down to free his white and brown boot from the cables—and heard voices. A girl's laugh, a boy answering sharply. When Johan straightened up, he saw them.
It was as if they'd sprung into existence between one blink of his eyes and the next. There was the girl in her long blue dress, her damp blond hair hanging down like liquid gold. The two boys were with her—the tall one with a bandage over one of his eyes and a cowboy hat perched on his head, and the smaller, brunette one, whose hair was as dark as milk chocolate and shone in the dim light glittering through the barred windows. The brunette Goth was standing with his hands in his pockets, facing the punk kid, who was tied to the pillar with what looked like bronze piano wire, his hands tied behind him, his legs bound at the ankles. His face was pulled tight with pain and fear.
Heart hammering in his chest, Johan ducked behind the nearest concrete pillar and peered around it. He watched as the brown-haired Goth paced back and forth, his arms now crossed over his chest. "So," he said. "You still haven't told me if there are any others of your kind lurking around here."
Your kind? Johan wondered what he was talking about. Maybe he'd stumbled into some kind of gang war.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." The blue-haired boy's tone was sharp, but full of pain.
"He means other manticores," said the dark-haired tall boy with the cowboy hat and the bandaged eye, speaking for the first time. He had a heavy Australian accent. "You do know what a manticore is, don't you?"
The boy tied to the pillar turned his face away, his mouth working.
"Manticores," drawled the brown-haired Goth, tracing the word on the air with the tip of his finger. "Defined as a monster that seems like a lion and a scorpion that has a tendency to feast on the flesh of humans, but understood here, for the purposes of the demigods, to be any wicked lion-like monster whose origin is outside our home dimension—"
"That's enough, Judai," said the girl.
"Asuka's right, mate," agreed the dark-haired Australian. "No one here needs a lesson in demonology—or accurate purposes of monsters."
They're insane, Johan thought. Actually insane.
Judai raised his head and smiled. There was something fierce about the gesture, something that reminded Johan of documentaries he'd watched about tigers on the Discovery Channel, the way the big cats would raise their heads and sniff the air for prey. "Asuka and Jim think I talk too much," he sighed, confidingly. "Do you think I talk too much?"
The blue-haired boy didn't reply at first. His mouth was still working. "I could give you information," he said. "I know where Demeter is."
Judai looked back at Jim, who shrugged. "Demeter's in the ground," he said. "The thing's just toying with us, guys."
Asuka tossed her hair. "Kill it, Judai," she said. "It's not going to tell us anything."
Judai raised his hand, and Johan saw dim light spark off the knife he was holding. It was made of silver and bronze, the blade shiny as crystal, sharp as a shard of glass, the hilt set with bright red stones.
The bound boy gasped. "Demeter is back!" he protested, dragging at the bonds that held his hands behind his back. "All the Underworld knows it, all the monsters in this world know it- I know it- I can tell you where she is—"
Rage suddenly flared in Judai's icy eyes. "By the gods, every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim you know where Demeter is. Well we know where she is, too. She's in Hell, with the rest of the creatures that tried to rise against my father and the other Olympians. And you—" Judai turned the knife in his grasp, the edge sparking like a line of flames. "You can join her there."
Johan could take no more. He leaped out from behind the pillar. "Stop!" he cried. "You can't do this!"
Judai whirled, so startled that the knife flew from his hand and clattered against the concrete floor. Asuka and Jim turned with him, wearing identical expressions of astonishment. The blue-haired boy hung in his bonds, stunned and gaping.
It was Jim who spoke first. "What the hell's this?" he demanded, looking from Judai to his companions, as if they might know what he was doing there.
"It's a boy," Judai said, recovering his composure. "Surely you've seen boys before, Jim. We're boys, for Zeus's sake." He took a step toward Johan as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "A mortal boy," he said, half to himself. "And he can see us."
"Of course I can see you," Johan said. "I'm not blind."
"Oh, but you are," said Judai, bending to pick up his knife. "You just don't know it." He straightened up. "You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you."
"I'm not going anywhere," Johan said. "If I do, you'll kill him." He pointed at the boy with blue hair.
Judai chuckled. "That's true," he admitted, twirling the knife between his fingers. "What do you care if I kill him or not?"
"Be-because—" Johan sputtered. "You can't just go around killing people!"
"You're right," said Judai. "You can't go around killing people." He pointed at the boy with blue hair, whose eyes were slitted. Johan wondered if he'd fainted. "That's not a person, little boy. It may look like a person and talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a human. But it's not. It's a monster."
"Judai," said Asuka warningly. "That's enough."
"You're fucking insane," hissed Johan, backing away from him. "I've called the police, you know. They'll be here any second."
"He's lying," said Jim, but there was doubt on his face. "Judai, do you—"
He never got to finish his sentence. At that moment, the blue-haired boy, with a high, yowling cry, tore free of the restraints binding him, tore himself free of his flesh, and flung himself on Judai.
They fell to the ground—an oversized lion with a scorpion's tail and claws and a Goth with brown hair—the manticore tearing at Judai with claws that glittered as if tipped with metal. Johan backed up, wanting to run, but his feet caught on a loop of wiring and he went down, knocking the breath out of his chest. He could hear Asuka shrieking. Rolling over, Johan saw the lion sitting on Judai's chest, claws tipped with blood. Electricity surged through his body and pulsed into Judai, whose boy jolted, eyes rolling into the back of his head.
Jim and Asuka were running toward them, Asuka brandishing her whip in hand. The manticore, as Judai had called it, slashed at Jim with claws extended. Jim threw up an arm to defend himself, and the claws raked it, splattering blood. The manticore lunged again—and Asuka's whip came across his back. He shrieked and fell to the side.
Swift as a flick of Asuka's whip, Judai rolled over. There was a blade gleaming in his hand. He sank the knife into the manticore's chest. Blackish liquid exploded around the hilt. The manticore arched off the floor, gurgling and twisting. With a grimace, Judai stood up. His black shirt was blacker now in some places, wet with blood. He looked down at the twitching form at his feet, reached down, and yanked out the knife. The hilt was slick with black fluid.
The manticore's eyes flicked open. His eyes, fixed on Judai, seemed to burn with fear. Between his teeth, he hissed, "You couldn't have survived that much electricity. It was enough to kill twenty men."
Judai seemed to snarl. "Like you said before," he growled. "Child of Zeus."
The manticore's eyes rolled back. His body began to jerk and twitch as he crumpled, folding in on himself until he became a pile of white powder that blew away into the wind and out of existence. The smell of sulfur burned in the air.
Johan scrambled to his feet, kicking free of the electrical wiring. He began to back away. None of them were paying attention to him. Jim had reached Judai, who was holding his arm, pulling at the sleeve, probably trying to get a good look at the wound. Johan turned to run—and found his way blocked by Asuka, whip in hand. The bronze length of it was stained with dark blood. She flicked it toward Johan, and the end wrapped itself around his wrist and jerked tight. Johan gasped with pain and surprise.
"Stupid little mortal," Asuka said between her teeth. "You could've gotten Judai killed."
"He's insane," Johan said, trying to pull his wrist back. The whip bit deeper into his skin. "You're all crazy! What do you think you are, vigilante killers? The police—"
"The police aren't going to be interested unless you can produce a body," said Judai. He picked his way across the cable-strewn floor toward Johan. Jim followed close behind, a scowl on his pale face. His visible blue eye stood out and caught Johan like a spotlight. The silver bracelet on Judai's wrist shone with a face so startling that Johan froze in terror.
He glanced to the spot where the manticore had been, and said nothing. There wasn't even a smear of blood there—nothing to show that the boy-who-turned-manticore had ever even existed in the first place.
"He's not dead. They return to the Underworld when they die," said Judai. "In case you were wondering."
"Judai," hissed Jim. "Be careful."
Judai drew his arm away. A ghoulish smear of blood marked his face. He reminded Johan everything of a Greek god—silver lightning dancing behind his amber eyes, form as beautiful and as graceful as an angel's. "He can see us, Jim," he said. "He already knows too much."
"Doesn't smell like a demigod, does he?" asked Asuka.
"A what?" Johan breathed.
Jim ignored him and answered Asuka's question. "No. He doesn't. Not in the least." He turned his full attention to Judai. "But if he's not a demi, what else can he be?" he asked, his voice soft and… fearful? "What if he's the—"
"The what?" Judai's tone was challenging. "What were you gonna say, Jim? You think he's the Seed of Demeter's Tree?"
"It's possible," Jim argued.
"No, it's not," Judai said matter-of-factly. "Demeter's Seed hadn't appeared for over three hundred years. Her Tree is dying; no one can change that. Besides, there's no way she'd make a human be the Seed, anyway."
Judai looked at Johan for the first time, and really looked at him. Johan felt himself burning under Judai's sudden gaze. The brunette Goth didn't look smug or even angry at him. In fact, he was staring at Johan as if he were the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. Johan had to look at his chest just to make sure he was still breathing. A silent moment passed between the two, emerald green locked on lightning brown. Johan could see the individual sparks of lightning bouncing in Judai's beautiful brown eyes. Wait… did I just call his eyes beautiful? Johan tried his hardest not to blush in front of these strangers. Judai looked as if he were thinking the same exact thing, his cheeks starting to turn a dusty rose color.
"So what do you want me to do with him?" demanded Asuka.
"Let him go," Judai said quietly. Asuka shot him a surprised, almost angry look, but didn't argue. The whip slithered away, freeing Johan's arm. He rubbed his sore wrist and wondered how the hell he was going to get out of there.
"Maybe we should bring him back with us," Jim suggested. "I'll bet Samejima would like to talk with him."
"No way are we bringing him to the camp!" argued Asuka. "He'll never get past the barrier, anyway! He's a mortal."
"Or is he?" said Judai softly. His quiet tone was worse than Asuka's snapping or Jim's demanding. "Have you ever had dealings with demigods, little boy? Walked with gods, danced with gorgons, talked with the harpies—"
"My name is not 'little boy'," Johan interrupted, glaring at Judai. "And I have no idea what you're talking about." Don't you? said a voice in the back of his head. You saw a boy turn into a lion with scorpion claws vanish into thin air. Judai isn't crazy—you just wish he was. "I don't believe in—in monsters, or demigods, or whatever you are—"
"Johan?" It was Ruby's voice. He whirled around. She was standing by the storage room door. One of the burly bouncers who'd been stamping hands at the front door was next to her. "Are you okay?" She peered at him through the gloom. "Why are you in here by yourself? What happened to the guys—you know, the ones with the knives?"
Johan blinked at her, then looked behind him, where Judai, Asuka, and Jim stood, Judai still in his bloody shirt with the knife in his hand. He grinned at Johan and dropped a half-mocking, half-apologetic shrug. Clearly he wasn't surprised that neither Ruby nor the bouncer could see them.
Somehow neither was Johan. Slowly he turned back to Ruby, knowing how he must look to her, standing alone in a damp storage room, his feet tangled in bright plastic wiring cables. "I thought they went in here," he said lamely. "But I guess they didn't. I'm sorry." He glanced from Ruby, whose expression had gone from worried to doubtful, to the bouncer, who just looked tired and annoyed. "It was my mistake."
Behind him, Asuka giggled.
"I don't believe you," Ruby said stubbornly as Johan, standing at the curb, tried desperately to hail a cab. Street cleaners had come down Orchard while they were inside the club, and the road was glossed black with oily water.
"I know," Johan said apologetically. "I'm sorry I embarrassed you like that, Ruby. I should have watched where they were going before making you go to the bouncer and then making you seem like an idiot."
"Fuck the embarrassment, Johan!" Ruby snapped. "You—I don't believe you. I do believe you about the guys with the knives, but I don't believe you when you say you must've been mistaken about them even being there."
Johan sighed, a bit relieved. So Ruby wasn't angry at him. She was worried. "But it's true, Ruby. Maybe there weren't any guys with knives. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing."
"No way." Ruby raised her hand above her head, but the oncoming taxis whizzed by her, spraying dirty water. Geez, Johan thought. Where is everyone going at midnight on a Sunday? "I saw your face when I came into that storage room," Ruby continued. "You looked seriously freaked out, like you'd seen a ghost."
Johan thought of Judai with his lighting-filled brown eyes. He glanced down at his wrist, braceleted by a thin red line where Asuka's whip had curled. No, not a ghost, he thought. Something even weirder than that.
"It was a mistake," he said wearily. He wondered why he was lying to her. Except, of course, that she'd think he was crazy. And there was just something about what had happened—something about the black blood bubbling up around Judai's knife, something in his voice when he'd said, Have you ever walked with gods?, that he'd rather keep to himself.
"Well, you looked too freaked for it to be just a mistake," Ruby said. She glanced back at the club, where a thin line of fog was eking out the door and onto the street. "I doubt they'll ever let us back in the Domino, not that I care."
"Then why bring it up?" Johan raised his hand again as a yellow blur sped toward them through the fog. This time, though, the taxi screeched to a halt at their corner, the driver laying on the horn as if he needed to get their attention.
"Finally we get lucky." Ruby yanked the taxi door open and slid into the plastic-covered backseat. Johan followed, inhaling the familiar scent of old cigarette smoke, leather, and cheap hair spray. "We're going to Crystal Street," Ruby said to the driver, and then she turned to Johan. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Johan hesitated a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, Ruby," he said. "I know I can."
He slammed the cab door shut behind him, and the taxi took off into the night.
Me: Just great! Chapter one, and Johan's already involved with creatures from Greek mythology, and he's met the amazing, and completely electrifying, Judai Yuki, son of Zeus!
Lucy: Tch—great pun, Ke-chan. Electrifying, son of Zeus. Nice.
Me: Hey, I work with what you give me.
Lucy: Anyway, we're hoping that people will enjoy this story with Judai as the seme as much as our other ones, and please go easy, since this is one of our first times writing with Judai as the seme, so we might be a bit off! Please review, but don't be harsh, because we are trying out best to make it interesting!