Hello all! This is the story of how Julius and Ruby met! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Kane Chronicles. Rick Riordan does. (And he does a great job.)

It was hot. It was dry. It was summertime in Egypt. Ruby could feel the heat before she even got off of the plane. Her friend, Mary, was fanning herself five minutes after they got off of the plane.

"I'm telling you Ruby, I don't know how I'm going to last in this heat!" Mary was a short girl in her early twenties. With her childish features and wavy bold hair and green eyes, she looked only fifteen. She usually wore her hair down, but quickly put it into a ponytail after stepping out of the plane and into the heat. Most days Ruby couldn't get her to shut up about boys and the latest fashion and whatnot, but, sometimes Mary had something to say that was worth listening to. It happened often enough that people enjoyed her company as an intelligent young lady and not as a dingy blonde.

"Oh, come off it Mary, it's not really that bad." Ruby was only half-listening to Mary. In reality Ruby wanted to get out of the heat as much as Mary did, but figured complaining wouldn't help. If they were going to be out in this heat for the next few weeks, they might as well get used to it.

"Not that bad! Look at me Ruby, I'm sweating like a pig and we just got here! And don't forget, I'm from Maine! I'm not exactly used to this type of heat!" Ruby started walking away from Mary, intent on catching up with her class. NYU's anthropology and archeology classes were taking a trip to Luxor to get a hands on experience of what "they were going to be doing the rest of their lives," as Professor Marmon put it in class a few days ago.

"And I'm from London, now come on. I don't want to fall behind!" There was an exasperated sigh from Mary, but she came along without complaint.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Julius Kane was unpacking his bags when he heard a loud crash in the bathroom. He ran in and saw his friend and roommate, Stephan, on the floor. He kept saying, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" over and over and over until he saw Julius in the doorway.

He jumped up quickly and said, "That was not cool, man. My hair dryer exploded on me!"

Julius just walked into the bathroom and looked around. He saw melted plastic and fried cords. "You forgot to plug in the adapter, didn't you." It wasn't a question, there was enough evidence to prove what Julius said was true.

"The what?"

"The adapter? The 'Professor Raskin said to buy because if you didn't, this would happen' adapter?"

"Never heard of it."

"Were you even paying attention that day?" This kind of behavior was strange for Stephan. Usually he was the one reminding Julius of things that happened during the day. He didn't know what was getting into Stephan...

"No, not really. I'm just psyched that Mary is officially my girlfriend now. I haven't had much on my mind lately. You really need to meet her Julius, she is phenomenal! Just the way she talks is phenomenal! Everything about her is ph-"

"Phenomenal, I get it. You can use my hair dryer as long as you use the adapter. Now, I'm going to continue to unpack, while you continue to rant about this phantom girlfriend of yours." Julius walked out of the bathroom and Stephan followed him.

"But Julius, I swear I think this girl is the one for me. She laughs at all my jokes-"

"It's pity laughter."

"She doesn't complain when I mess up something-"

"She thinks it's a phase you'll grow out of."

"And she enjoys my company."

"At the moment, I'm NOT enjoying your company. I'm going to take a walk around the hotel. Don't burn down the place while I'm gone." Julius looked at Stephan who evidently heard nothing that Julius had said. He was laying on the bed, staring dreamily up at the ceiling. Julius closed the door tightly and decided he would never get that worked up over a girl.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Ruby's first night in Luxor had gone like this.

"Oh Stephan, you're so funny!" *pause* "Yes, I really mean it, why wouldn't I?" *pause* "Oh, me too!" *pause* "ME TOO!" *pause* "Who would have guessed we had so much in common?" *pause* "I love you too!" *pause* "You. Are. So. SWEET!" There was also a lot of giggling and squealing coming from Mary's side of the room. It went on for hours and Ruby's head was about to explode.

"She could bloody talk the hind legs off a donkey." This was slightly muffled as Ruby's face was buried in her pillow. It didn't do much to block out the noise, but it was strangely therapeutic for her. She would be proud to say that she endured two more minutes of this torture before she snapped.

"Mary! It's midnight and I'm tired. Can you please talk quieter?" Mary hadn't heard any of that so Ruby threw a pillow at her. "Mary!"

"I'm sorry Ruby, did you say something?"

"Good night! And give me back my pillow."

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

When Julius cam back from his walk he saw Stephan talking on the phone. He could also hear Stephan, very well for that matter, and it was starting to grate on his nerves. The conversation went like this:

"You really mean it?" *pause* "Oh, I don't know. I just don't like it when people lie about stuff like that." *pause* "Good, now I know I'm not the only one!" *pause* "What is happening here?" *pause* "I love you so much!" *pause* "Really Mary, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me." *pause* "You're sweeter!" Julius was just happy that Stephan wasn't giggling like a little schoolgirl.

When Stephan finally got off the phone (around one in the morning) Julius was still awake. There was no way he was able to sleep through that racket. "Finally, you're done. I was getting ready to unplug the phone."

"Dude, it was just a small conversation. It's not like we were telling each other our life story. I was on the phone, what, ten minutes?"

"Try four hours. At least! And you were telling your life story. You never told me that you slept with a teddy bear all through middle school."

Stephan sniffed. "That was for Mary's ears only."

"And the whole building probably heard it. I can only imagine what her roommate was thinking." Julius truly felt sorry for whoever Mary was rooming with, because girls tend to squeal and giggle, and he definitely heard Mary do it a lot.

"Well if she's anything like Mary said, then she was probably ok with it. You know, Mary said that she was single." The word 'single' was drawn out, like Stephan expected Julius to jump up and down with excitement.

"Not this again. How many time do I have to tell you? I'm perfectly happy without a girlfriend. I don't need a girlfriend. I don't WANT a girlfriend. Comprende?"

"Inglés, por favor. I think you secretly want a girlfriend."

"No, I openly and secretly do not want a girlfriend."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

The conversation was getting old so Julius decided to end it. "Good night Stephan."

"Haha! You didn't deny it! I win!" Stephan sounded proud of himself for "cracking the mystery." Julius just turned off the lamp and thought, "I'm perfectly happy without a girlfriend. Right?"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"You did WHAT!" Ruby was drying her hair (and using an adapter) and was ready to punch Mary.

"I told you, you're going on a date tonight with a friend of Stephan's. And you're going because you really need to get over what happened between you and John."

"That's a bunch of rubbish. I've been over that for a long time." Mary just looked at her. "Fine, I'm not, but I'm perfectly happy wallowing in my misery. I don't need your help."

"Being 'perfectly happy wallowing in your own misery' makes no sense! It's a contradic-"

"It was supposed to be, and to answer your question, I'm not going."

"It wasn't a question Ruby."

"You're sounding like my mum now. What makes you think I'd want to go anyway? I don't do blind dates!"

"Ruby, you're my best friend. I don't want to see you be miserable for the rest of your life just because one boy cheated on you. I want you to be happy."

Ruby didn't answer for a while. She knew Mary meant well, but a blind date? One one hand, she didn't even know the guy, and two people (one of them still a stranger) wanted her to spend an evening with him. On the other hand, this would give her a chance to start over and do something besides study. It would also give her a break of the long and painful phone calls between Mary and her boyfriend. "Fine, I'll go. But don't expect me to have fun."

Mary squealed and gave Ruby a hug. "Don't worry you'll have fun. I promise."

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"I'm going to kill you Stephan. I don't even know the girl! What do you expect me to do?" Stephan had broken the news to Julius, and he wasn't taking it very well.

"Just, you know, talk to her. Be nice. Something!"

"I'm not going."

"Then I'm going to have one very upset girlfriend on my hands. Mary said that her friend agreed to go. Please go Julius, it's my life on the line, not yours. If you don't go, Mary will be upset and she could dump me before we really had a real relationship! Please Julius? For a friend?" Stephan gave him big puppy dog eyes, which are cute on a three year old, but just plain creepy on a 23 year old.

"Only if you stop looking at me like that, it's creeping me out."

"Yes! Awkward man hug? "

"No."

"Come dude, you know you want to."

"You know what, I think I- No. Not going to happen."

"Fine. Now come on, it's time to go to the dig site! I don't want to be late."

There was one thing Julius wanted to know. "Can you at least tell me her name? It'd be kind of awkward going on a date with someone and I don't know their name."

Stephan just sighed. "Julius, it's called a blind date for a reason. You'll find out tonight."

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Papers had been laid out on a table at the dig site. Names were paired up on them, which meant one thing. Partners. Mary and Ruby were searching for their names when Mary squealed. "Oh my God! Look! I got paired up with Stephan! Have you found your name yet?"

"It's not on here." Ruby had looked the papers over four times and sure enough, her name was no where to be seen.

"What? That doesn't make any since?"

"It's ok, I'll just go tell Professor Marmon. You go ahead."

Mary looked relieved. Who could blame her, she got paired up with her new boyfriend and probably couldn't wait to get started. The pairing probably wasn't the best idea Professor Marmon and Raskin had, but it would definitely take Mary's mind off the heat. "Ok, hope you figure it out!" With that, she ran off to go get supplies and find her partner/boyfriend.

It wasn't hard for Ruby to find Professor Marmon and Raskin. They were the only two middle-aged balding white men in the area. Ruby saw somebody else with them, but she didn't know who it was.

"Um, excuse me, Professor Marmon?"

"Ah, there's the other one! I told you there'd be somebody else!" Professor Marmon was making no sense at the moment.

"Um..." Ruby didn't really know how to respond to that.

"Ruby," Professor Marmon said. "This young man is going to be your partner." He then took the stranger that had been standing with the two professors by the shoulders and pulled him (rather roughly) in front of Ruby. There was something about him that seemed strangely familiar to Ruby. He was a tall man that was about the same age as her. He had dark skin and his brown eyes sparkled. Neither of them said anything, they were both overcome with shyness, something that doesn't happen to either often.

One of the professors coughed. "Oh, sorry, um, I'm Julius Kane." He held out his hand to her and she shook it gently.

"I, I'm Ruby Faust." She smiled at him and he smiled back, making his eyes sparkle even more.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Mary, I don't want to go on that blind date anymore."

"What? Why not?"

"I just don't want to." In reality, she was falling for Julius Kane, which sounded ridiculous because she just met him today. But there was something about him that made her heart melt.

"You're going. Stephan said that his friend agreed. I don't want to loose an amazing boyfriend because my friend stood up his! Please Ruby? Nothing says that you have to spend the rest of your life with this guy!"

Ruby couldn't believe she was saying this. "Fine. But no more blind dates. Ok?"

Mary smiled. "Ok. Now you better get ready or you'll be late!"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"You know Stephan, you better be happy I'm such a good friend. Otherwise, I wouldn't be going." Julius was getting ready to walk out the door and into a blind date that he never wanted to go on in the first place. He especially didn't want to go now, not after meeting Ruby. He had told Stephan about her. After that, Stephan had made him get ready for the date and told him not to mess anything up.

"Just get out of here, ya big lug." Stephan almost literally shoved him out the door and into a somebody in the hallway.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean t-" He saw who he ran into and suddenly became very embarrassed. "Ruby, I, I'm sorry. That was all my fault. See my friend Stephan and his girlfriend Mary set me up on this blind date and... Sorry. I'm sorry."

Ruby stared at him for a while. "Did you say 'blind date?'"

"Yeah, why?" Julius was really confused and became even more so when Ruby started laughing. "What?"

"You're my blind date. Oh my God, I can't believe this! And I thought I was going to be on a date with some loser or something! Let me tell you, you are much better than a loser! Much, much better!"

"You mean, you're Mary's friend?" It was starting to dawn on Julius that he would be going on a date with the girl he was falling for. And that girl was Ruby Faust.

I'll let your imagination take care of the rest. Maybe tell me in a review? Oh, and "Inglés, por favor" means "English, please" in Spanish. If I butchered it, sorry, blame Google Translate.

~Box~