So, I lied about doing the update a couple days after the last update. I kind of got distracted by last minute school work which included like three essays and online homework and quizzes. Though the semester is over and I'm out for a little less than a month. I passed all my classes so yay to that, by the way.
Now onto the update. This chapter is kind of slow so I wanted it to be a little longer, another reason why it's taken me a while to update, but I decided to move some things to the next chapter but it made sense to me to end it where I ended it at. Though next chapter will have a lot of Balder in it. I'm already working on it, so Chapter 10 should be up after Christmas. Oh, speaking of Christmas, one of my Christmas gifts was a new boxer puppy. He was born on my birthday so he's not little, little.
Though, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter even if it's slow. I wish you all Happy Holidays!
NightlyRowenTree: I'm glad you enjoyed the update c:
OmuiYuni: I'm glad you think it's interesting. I hope you'll continue to enjoy it.
Momochan77: Yes, the drawings! Unfortunately Lydia takes her frustrations outwardly. And we'll have to wait until later to see how this guy is going to act. And I'm glad you support Lydia and Takeru :3
Jemstone6259: Unfortunately you'll still have to wait a little longer to find out.
ElGato44: I understand. I absolutely adore Balder and I originally envision this being a Balder fic but I'd much rather see how Lydia's personality matches with people before choosing. Though I do see one of the guys being more of a best friend/big brother figure so you'll just have to wait to see how things play out.
Guest1995: I'm glad you love the story and think Lydia is life-like. That means a lot to me. And yes, it will be interesting for Lydia to deal with Balder if she gets close to him.
Kpacademygirl: Well, he is related to her step-brother in a way. It's kind of the reason why she has a rocky relationship with Daisuke. He's also related to another person in the story. And yes, this guy is super creepy.
Em: I'm glad you're enjoying it :3
Bluebacon: Here's the update, love :3
Poking her head outside the door, Lydia checks for the fifth time that morning that the King of Assholes was nowhere in sight. The entire night, Lydia had tried to convince herself that the day before was just a long, bad dream. This idea was struck down when she noticed her destroyed drawings on the floor and a very concerned Amy pestering her with questions on what was wrong with her. If Lydia wasn't so upset with the change of events, she would've found it funny that Amy assumed that Loki was the reason for her distraught. Though Loki would never cause Lydia to react the way that horrible man did. And even if Lydia didn't react in a way that showed she was upset, the nasty bruise around her wrist was proof enough that the day before had happened.
"Alright, Lydia. Maybe he was just really bad figment of your imagination," Lydia whispers to herself as she steps outside the room and closes the door. As she walks, she taps her hand nervously against her thigh. "I mean, this is a magical island. Maybe dreams and imagination appear more real than they do back home. Yeah, that's gotta be it."
Lydia continue to whisper reassuring things to herself as glanced around the area. It was just a five minute walk from the dorms to the school building. Five minutes until she could actually see someone that she felt safe around. The first person to come to her mind that morning was Yui. Though when she rethought it, Yui would be the least able person to help her. If that man was really there than Lydia needed someone stronger, someone who wasn't human. She needed a god.
Lydia groans at the thought. "I never thought I would actually go looking for a god to help me with my problems," Lydia mumbles.
Shaking her head, Lydia quickens her pace. It was closer to time for class to start since Lydia had spent most of the morning battling with herself on whether to go or not. Amy had also bombarded her with questions as soon as she woke up. Of course Lydia avoided answering the questions, not wanting to tell Amy what was going on. She didn't want Amy to worry about her. Now she was looking for a god to help her with her issue, yet was unsure on who to go to. Well, she had an idea on who to go to yet she was uncertain on how he would react.
"I wonder if Thor has his hammer with him," Lydia thinks out loud once she reaches the courtyard. Though she doubted any of the guys carried their weapons with them. This was a school they were going to, not a battleground.
Furrowing her brows, Lydia notices there was no one in the courtyard. She goes to pull out her phone to make sure she had the time right when the bell went off, signaling class had started. Cursing under her breath, Lydia takes off in a sprint to inside the building. After almost tripping a couple times, Lydia makes it to the classroom, yanking the door open and rushing inside, earning a few laughs from her classmates. Closing the door, Lydia leans against the wall to catch her breath. Smiling sheepishly, she waves slightly at Thoth who was glaring at her from behind his podium.
"Please take a seat, Murphy." He motions toward the desks.
Lydia looks around the classroom, noticing an open seat behind Takeru. Smiling slightly, Lydia walks toward the back of the classroom to sit in the free desk. Takeru glances up at her as she passes him and shakes his head at her. Lydia decides to ignore the gesture and sits at her desk as Thoth begins to call the roll. Pulling her notebook out, Lydia rips out the last page and begins to write quickly on the page the words: Hey, can you sense the difference between people from my world and yours?
Folding the paper into a square, Lydia leans up and taps Takeru on the shoulder. He turns his head, glaring at her before noticing the piece of paper between her fingers. Arching a brow, he takes the paper.
"Who said you could act so familiar with me," he whispers to not catch Thoth's attention.
"Myself." Takeru rolls his eyes at her comment. "Just read the damn thing, hon."
Takeru stares at her for a few seconds before turning back around. Shaking her leg, Lydia places her elbows on the desktop and rests her chin between her hands as she watches Takeru's body language. A few seconds later, he leans back in his seat and scratches the back of his head. Turning his body slightly, he looks at her with a questioning look. In response, Lydia lifts a brow and nods her head toward his desk. Huffing, Takeru turns to take her pencil before straightening himself back toward the front of the class.
Making a face, Lydia mutters, "No, I didn't need that or anything. Thanks for asking." She leans over to her bag and takes out another pencil. When she straightens herself out, she notices the folded piece of paper already on desk. Looking at the front of the room, Lydia watches as Thoth writes something on the board. Taking the moment, Lydia opens the note.
Not in this form. Why?
Clicking her tongue, Lydia quickly writes a response. Just wondering, that's all.
Lydia folds the paper back and holds in her hand as she looks back at the front of the room. Thoth was still writing on the board, leading to Lydia leaning up and holding the note over Takeru's shoulder. Takeru snatches the note out of her hand and Lydia leans back in her seat.
Takeru turns around slightly. "'Just wondering,'" he repeats what she wrote in a question. Lydia nods and shrugs her shoulders. "I call bullshit. Why do you want to know?" His voice was forceful as he turns to face her even more, his back almost to the front of the class.
Lydia shakes her head. "I was just curious," she states, avoiding his gaze.
Narrowing his eyes, Takeru stares intensely at her. Lydia bites her bottom lip and places her chin back into her hands. Glancing over her, Takeru's gaze stops at her wrist. Nodding his head, he asks, "What happened?"
Following his gaze, Lydia quickly pulls her shirt sleeve down to cover her wrist and places her hands on her lap. "Nothing," she states blankly before forcing a smile.
Biting his lip, Takeru rubs his nose before pointing at her. "If it was nothing you wouldn't have hid it," he comments, his eyes taking on a serious light. Lydia stares into his eyes, narrowing hers after a couple seconds. Sighing, Takeru rests his elbow on her desk and lays his chin on the back of his hand. "I can stay like this all day," he adds with a shrug.
After those words leave Takeru's mouth, his head falls forward onto Lydia's desk with a loud bang. Lydia jumps out of her seat and looks at Thoth in slight horror as he glares down at the Sea God.
"I would expect you to pay more attention in my class and not to converse during my lecture, Totsuka," the Egyptian god growls.
Muttering curse words, Takeru rubs the back of his head as he lifts his head up. Shooting a glare at Thoth, Takeru turns back around his seat to face the front of the class. Seeing that he wasn't going to talk anymore, Thoth averts his attention from Takeru to Lydia.
Lydia holds her hands up. "Yeah, I know. Shut up and pay attention."
Lydia sits back down in her seat, scooting the chair up so she wasn't so far back. Thoth gives her a hard look before walking back to the front of the class. As Thoth continues his lecture, Lydia glances around the classroom to make sure that guy wasn't there. When she doesn't see him, she guesses that he must be in another class or he really was a figment of her imagination. Hopefully it was the latter. Glancing back at her hands in her lap, a frown forms on her lips as she studies the bruise around her wrist. Even if she told herself that he was a figment of her wild imagination for the rest of the day, her wrist would tell her otherwise.
As the class continued, Lydia doodles on her paper. Usually she was great at taking notes from lectures though that morning she could concentrate enough to remember what Thoth was saying. Her mind kept remembering the cold eyes of that monster from the day before. Lydia really hated those eyes. Along with hating those eyes, she hated the twisted smirk that came along with them and the way that man would lick his lips. His whole being disgusted her and filled her with rage.
The lunch bell jolts Lydia out of her trance, causing her to yelp in surprise and drop her pencil. As she reaches to close her notebook, her hand freezes as she notices what was on her paper. She hadn't been drawing simple doodles but managed to draw a life-like version of the monster. Cold eyes and smirk and the unruly hair that she was forced to run her fingers through.
"Who's that?" Balder asks looking down at her desk as he stood beside it.
Swallowing, Lydia glances up at him. "No one important," she whispers, her voice pitched higher than usual.
"Hey, hey! Strawberry, I didn't know you could draw so good," Apollon exclaims, leaning over her shoulder to get a better look at it.
Lydia bites her lower lip as the guys crowded around her desk to look at her drawing. She wanted to barf. How could they think that this was good? The man was a monster. He didn't deserve such praise in such delighted voices.
Hearing someone snort, Lydia looks up from the paper and notices Loki scowling down at her. "I could've done better," he says while glaring down at the paper.
Lydia rolls her eyes and opens her mouth to say something when someone suddenly takes her notebook off her desk. Making a face, Lydia glares at the person who stole her notebook. "Um, excuse me. That doesn't belong to you." She stands up and leans over to take her notebook back from Takeru who reaches a hand out and places it on the top of her head to keep her in place.
"How do you know this person?" Takeru questions, his eyes fixated on the paper and wearing a slight scowl.
Moving her head, Lydia crosses her arms over her chest. "That's none of your business. What's it to you?" Her eyes narrow as she realizes that the Sea God knew the person on the page.
Takeru continues to glare at the paper, ignoring Lydia's question. Lydia furrows her brows when Tsukito whispers something to Takeru, the atmosphere between them turning serious. Takeru glances at Lydia before he rips the paper out of her notebook and shoves the book back into her hands.
"The hell is your problem?" Lydia shouts as she watches Takeru fold the picture and stuff it into his pocket.
"Yeah, Take-Take. That's was uncalled for," Apollon says with a frown, obviously disappointed in the Sea God.
"So?" Takeru growls, glaring at the Sun God. "There's no reason for her to know this guy. It's bad luck even for her to be drawing him." Takeru crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at the group as if to dare them to challenge him.
Confusion washes over Lydia's face. There was no reason for her to know that monster? Though she's known the man ever since she had been in Japan. He lived in Japan and went to her school, he was even in the basketball club and quite popular among the girls at school. He her step-brother's best friend so he spent a lot time over at her house. Of course she knew who he was.
"And how to do you know him, Grumps?" Lydia questions, eager to know how the Sea God knew a human back from her world.
Takeru shrugs. "That's really none of your business, Murphy. You just really don't want to get involved with him."
Shaking her head, Lydia laughs uncertainly. "You've got issues. It's just a drawing," she tells him as she picks up her bag from the side of her desk. She motions for Balder to move out of her way and walks toward the door.
At the moment, she needed to get away from everyone to process what was happening. Takeru knew who the monster was. He knew and it was obvious that he wasn't going to tell her. Instead he looked at her like she was summoning Satan himself. Well, that would fit the description of that man.
As Lydia shakes her head, she runs her fingers through her hair. Now that she knew that Takeru knew the man, she figured that he might be mentioned in Japanese mythology. She needed to go to the library.
"Sheesh! What's his deal?" Yui exclaims in annoyance.
Lydia looks up from the book in front of her, raising a brow at the girl who was now holding a pillow to her chest. Since she didn't feel safe in her own room, Lydia asked to spend the night with Yui, using the excuse that they never got to have their Girls Weekend since Zeus had rudely brought them here. Now she was reading a book on Japanese mythology and listening to Yui rant about the Great Grumps.
Melissa starts to wave his arms frantically, making a shouting noise in the process. "Kutanagi," he mutters as he looks at Yui with a worried expression.
"He's rude, he always glares at me, and he doesn't listen to me at all!" Yui continues, ignoring the small creature on the coffee table.
"I see…" Melissa nods his head as he listens. Lydia now pushes the book aside and rests her chin in her hand, a smile creeping on her face as she listens to Yui. It was nice to actually listen to something so normal. Normal being complaining about boys.
"Of course, I want to graduate, but that isn't all." Yui lays her head on her pillow in a defeated manner.
"It's a difficult problem…" Melissa starts to march across the table with his arms folding across his chest. "You and Takeru are from the same country, and you both like to swing sticks around. You both should get along better."
Lydia starts to snicker as Yui leans her head up to look at him. "They aren't sticks. They're swords."
Melissa lifts his arm up. "Yeah, you can call them that."
"Careful Melissa. Badmouth her swords and she'll go on a thirty minute speech on swordsmanship," Lydia says in a warning voice.
Ignoring Lydia's comment, Yui sighs and stands up, placing the pillow down as she walks away from the couch. "It'll be fine, Kutanagi. I'm sure you'll get through to him."
Yui turns around to face Melissa with a big smile. "Melissa!"
Melissa nods his head. "The more you repel one another at first, the more exciting it gets!" The small doll catches on fire causing Lydia to gasp. "That's what love's about!" Hearts begin to fly from his hands as he holds his arms out and then spins around.
Lydia laughs loudly at the small man before turning her attention back to her book. Yui sighs before walking toward the door. "I'm heading out," she announces to small group in her room.
"Heading out?" Lydia looks up from her book. "What you heading out for? This is supposed to be our night, babe." Lydia mocks with a frown.
Yui shoots her look. "I'm going to practice to clear my head." She holds up her sword before turning on her heel.
Shaking her heading, Lydia leans back in her seat. "Okay, that's fine! I'll just hang out with Amy and Melissa! We don't need you!" Lydia shouts as Yui goes out the door.
Sucking her teeth, Lydia stands up from her seat. Grabbing the book, she walks over the couch and sits down, stretching her legs across it and propping herself against the arm of the couch. As she bites her lip, she flips through the pages of the book. So far she was only getting things on Izanami, Izanagi, and Amaterasu. She smiles brightly as she comes across the section on Susanoo.
"Now we're getting somewhere," she says as she glances at the picture on the page. "Aw, little Takeru was so cute. The fuck happened to him?"
She continues to flip through the pages, deciding she could always look over Susanoo's story anytime. Right now she was trying to find anything that caught her attention. Her hand freezes as her eyes glance over a tear in the book.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Lydia curses as she notices a couple pages missing. She closes the book and throws it across the room. Apparently the monster in her life was better at hiding things than she thought. Though she planned on finding out who he really was.
