Title: To Stand Against the Sun

Genre: romance, drama

Rating: M for language, violence, and sexual themes

Pairings: JohanXJudai (spiritshipping); very, very mild ManjoumeXJudai (rivalshipping); other minor pairings

Summary: Judai Yuki was not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen when he moved to live with his Dad in Copenhagen, Denmark. But this where his life truly begins. There he meets Johan Andersen, a mysterious and captivating student at his new high school. Judai soon discovers that Johan is hiding a secret, after he impossibly saves his life from a van with his super-human strength and speed. Judai is determined to unravel his secret, but the truth is more terrifying than he realized. Johan is a vampire. Any normal person would just keep away from him, but Johan and Judai have fallen passionately and unconditionally in love with each other. And so begins their forbidden relationship between a human and a vampire. But the young lovers soon discover that their troubles are only just about to begin.

Me: The third (technically fourth) chapter!

Lucy: A very important and sort of romantic event between Johan and Judai happens in this chapter, and we hope that you all enjoy it! We made it as best as we could!

Me: Please enjoy!

Lucy: Let the chapter begin!

Chapter Three: Car Trouble

When I opened my eyes in the morning, something was very different.

It was the light. It was still the same light-gray color that I had come to expect from Copenhagen, but it was lighter somehow. I realized that not a bit of fog was veiling my window.

I jumped up to look outside, then groaned in horror.

A fine layer of white snow covered the yard. It dusted over the top of my truck and turned the road white. But that wasn't the worst part. All the rain from yesterday had frozen solid- coating the trees in a lovely white frost, making them into snow statues, but it also made the driveway and the road a deadly ice slick. I had enough trouble not falling down when the ground was dry; it might be safer for me to just ignore the snow and go right back to bed now.

Nerigon had gone to work before I got downstairs.

I threw together a quick bowl of cereal and some orange juice from the carton that was about to expire in two days. I felt a bit excited to go to school, and that scared me. I knew it wasn't the, gulp, eagerness to learn, so that made me feel better. No. If I was honest with myself, I would know that I was eager to go to school because I would see Johan Andersen again. And that was very, very stupid.

It took every ounce of my concentration to make it down the driveway without falling down. I almost lost my balance when I got to my truck, but I managed to cling to the side mirror and save myself. Clearly, today was going to be horrible.

My truck seemed to have no problem with the black ice that covered the roads. I drove very slowly, though, not wanting to carve a path of mass destruction through Main Street.

When I got out of my truck at school, I saw why I'd had so little trouble. Something silver caught my eye, and I walked to the back of the truck- carefully holding the side for support- to examine my tires. There were thin chains of silver diamond shapes on them. Nerigon had gotten up God knows how early and put snow chains on my truck. I smiled lightly. I wasn't use to the sudden unspoken concern, but it made me feel a bit warm on this frozen day.

I was standing by the back corner of my truck, trying to maintain my balance, when I heard a very odd sound.

It was a high-pitched screech, and it was becoming painfully loud. I looked up, startled.

I saw several things at the exact same time. Nothing was moving in slow motion as it did in the movies. Instead, the adrenaline rush seemed to make my brain work much faster, and I was able to absorb in clear detail several things happening at once.

Johan Andersen was standing several cars down from me, staring at me in horror. His face stood out in the sea of students, all with the same horror-struck look. But what was more important was the giant blue van that was skidding, tired locked and squealing, spinning wildly across the parking lot. It was going to hit the back of my truck, and I was standing between them. I didn't even have enough time to close my eyes.

Just before I heard the shattering crunch of the van wrapping around the end of my truck, something hit me- something very, very hard- but not from the direction I was expecting.

My head cracked against the blacktop, and I felt something solid and cold pinning me to the ground. I was lying on the pavement behind the gray car I'd parked next to. But I didn't have a chance to notice anything else, because the van was still coming. It had curled around the end of my truck, and still spinning and sliding, was about to collide with me again.

A low growl made me aware that someone was beside me, and the voice was impossible not to place. Two long, white hands shot out protectively in front of me, and the van shuddered to a stop inches from my face, the hands fitting into a deep dent in the side of van's body.

Then his hands moved so fast that they blurred. One was suddenly gripping under the body of the van, and something was dragging me, swinging me around like a rag doll, till they hit the tire of the gray car beside me. A groaning metallic thud hurt my ears, and the van settled, glass popping, onto the blacktop- exactly where my legs had been a moment ago.

It was absolutely silent for a long moment before the screaming began. I could hear more than one person shouting my name. But more clearly than all the yelling, I could hear Johan Andersen's low, frantic voice in my ear.

"Judai? Are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine." My voice was strange. I tried to sit up, quickly realizing that Johan was holding me against the side of his body in an iron grasp.

"Be careful," he warned as I tried to move. "I think you hit your heard pretty hard."

I became aware of a dull throbbing where my head had cracked against the blacktop a few moments ago. "Ow," I said, surprised that I had not noticed it until now.

"That's what I thought." He sounded like he was trying not to laugh, but he looked incredibly worried.

"How in the..." I shook my head, a dumb idea. It sent the wave of nausea and dizziness through all of my mind. "H-how did you get over here so fast, Johan?" My voice was pained and soft.

Johan's dark eyes widened slightly. "I was standing right next to you, Judai," he said.

I slowly sat up, and Johan allowed me to, but he kept his arms wrapped around me. I looked at his concerned, innocent expression and was a bit distracted by the lovely and mesmerizing color of his gold-green eyes.

And then they found us, a crowd of people with tears streaming down their faces, shouting at each other and shouting to us.

"Don't move," someone instructed.

"Get Mituso out of the van!" someone else screamed.

There was a flurry of activity around us. I tried to sit up a bit more, but Johan's cold hand stopped me. I looked at him and my vision blurred for a moment, and then he came back into focus. I wondered just how hard I had cracked my head.

"Just stay put for now, Judai," Johan instructed.

I stared at him and let my vision blur and then refocus again. "You were over there," I remembered, and Johan gave me a slightly shocked look, his gold-green eyes wide. "Y-you were... by your car. You... were over there."

Johan pursed his lips. "No, I wasn't, Judai."

"I saw you."

All around us was chaos. I could hear the deeper voices of the adults arriving on the scene. But I ignored them all and kept asking Johan. I was not going to let this go. He knew I was right, and he was going to admit it.

"Judai," Johan whispered, his expression slightly worried. "I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way." His eyes flashed, as if he was trying to relay a message to me.

"No," I whispered.

The gold in his eyes blazed. "Please, Judai."

"Why?" I whispered.

Johan's expression softened a bit. "Trust me," he pleaded, his soft voice overwhelmed. "I'll explain it to you later if you really want me to, but for now, just please."

"Fine," I huffed and fell silent.

It took six EMTs and three of the teachers to shift the blue van away far enough for them to get two stretchers in. Johan refused his, and I tried to do the same, but Johan betrayed me and told the EMTs that I had hit my head pretty hard. I tried to protest, but my vision swirled, and I collapsed back into Johan's arms, back onto the ground. I heard him say something, and then something cold- I guessed it was his hand- brushed my bangs out of my face. I was too exhausted to argue with him.

The entire school was watching with worried and solemn expressions- I noticed Rei bawling and trying to jump to the front to get to me, her friend, but Kenzan stopped her- as I was loaded into the back of the ambulance. Johan climbed in and sat beside me.

To make things worse, Nerigon arrived before they could get me safely away.

"Judai!" he yelled in panic when he saw me on the stretcher.

I weakly inclined my head and gave my dad a reassuring smile. "I-I'm completely fine, Ne- Dad," I whispered. That seemed to be all that I could do at the moment.

He turned to the closest EMT for a second opinion. I closed my eyes and remembered what had just happened. I recalled the van- which now had a huge dent that fit the contours of Johan's shoulders... as if he'd braced himself against the incoming van and then grabbed it with his hands to keep it from hitting me.

I tried to think of a logical explanation for what had just happened- an explanation that excluded the idea that I was insane.

Naturally, we got a police escort to the hospital. The EMTs unloaded me, but Johan just slipped out of the ambulance with the grace of a gazelle and danced into the hospital before me. He kept his pace slow, so that he was beside me almost the whole time. He refused to look down at me as he had when we were in the parking lot and in the ambulance.

They put me in the emergency room, a long room with a line of beds separated by pastel curtains.

There was another flurry of personnel from the hospital, and another stretcher was brought to the bed beside me. I recognized Mituso from one of my classes, a bloodstained bandage wrapped around his brittle-brown-haired head. He looked worse than me, but he was staring at me in horror, a worried look on his face.

"Judai, I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine, Mituso," I whispered. "You look awful. Are you all right?"

As we spoke, some nurses unwound the bandages from his head and revealed a few tiny gashes that would require just a few stitches on his face and on his forehead. I winced when I saw them.

He ignored my question. "I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast and I hit a patch of black ice and-"

"Don't worry about it," I smiled weakly. "You missed me."

"How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there one moment, and then the next, you were on the ground away from the van, on the other side of your truck."

"Um... Johan pulled me out of the way."

"Who?" He looked confused.

"Johan Andersen- he was standing right beside me." I didn't like to lie, but it seemed like the only explanation that I could give at this point that would not make me sound like I was totally insane. Maybe I did hit my head harder than I thought.

Mituso's eyes widened slightly. "Andersen? I didn't see him. Wow that happened fast. Is he all right?"

"I think so. He's here somewhere."

They wheeled me away then, to X-ray my head. There was nothing wrong. I didn't even have a concussion. I asked if I was able to leave, but the nurse said the doctor wanted to see me first. So I was trapped in the ER, harassed by Mituso's constant apologies. No matter how many times I told him it was fine, he just kept on apologizing. I eventually closed my eyes and just tried to ignore him for a little while. My head was starting to hurt again.

"Is he sleeping?" a musical voice asked. My eyes flew open.

Johan was standing at the foot of the bed, looking at me with relief on his face. My cheeks flushed crimson, but it was easy to get away with that since it could just have been from the pain and the cold.

"Hey, Johan, I'm really sorry-" Mituso began.

Johan lifted his hand to silence him and it worked. "Hey, no blood, no foul," he flashed a smile as he said this. He went to sit on the edge of the bed that Mituso was on and turned to me. "So, what's the verdict?"

"There's nothing wrong with me," I murmured. "But they won't let me leave. Why aren't you strapped up?"

Johan grinned. "It all depends on who you know," he said. "But don't worry, Judai." He winked at me, and I almost melted from how warm my body got. My cheeks must have been the deepest shade of crimson possible. "I came to spring you."

Then a doctor came around the corner, and I stared in shock. He was young and had teal hair... and he was handsomer and more attractive than any movie star I had ever seen. He was pale, like Johan, and from Nerigon's description earlier, I could deduce that this was Dr. Joshua Andersen, Johan's adoptive father.

"So, Mr. Yuki," Dr. Andersen said in an attractive voice. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm all right," I said.

Dr. Andersen took my X-ray and smiled down at me. "Your X-ray looks good. Nothing broken. How's your head?" he asked. "Johan said that you hit your head pretty hard."

"I'm okay," I gave a soft sigh.

Dr. Andersen came over and brushed his fingers along my head. I winced when he touched where the throbbing had been. "Does this hurt?" he asked me in a gentle tone.

"Just a little," I said. "It's gonna be fine."

Dr. Andersen helped me up. He turned to Johan and nodded slightly. Johan nodded and took me gently around the shoulders and helped me get out of the room while Dr. Andersen went to go look at Mituso's cuts. I looked up at Johan as he assisted me out of the room, stealing one last look at his adoptive father.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked.

Johan stiffened and turned to me once we were out in the hallway. His expression was somewhat cold, his eyes a bit darker. "What do you want to ask me, Judai?" His tone was sort of cold and it hurt.

"You owe me an explanation," I reminded him.

Johan sighed and looked away. "I saved your life- I don't owe you anything."

I frowned. "You promised," I said. "Now, I want to know what happened back there in the parking lot."

"What do you think happened?" he whispered through grit teeth.

It all came out as one big rush. "I know that you weren't anywhere near me- Mituso didn't see you either, so don't give me that crap that you were standing right beside me the whole time, 'cause you weren't. The van would have crushed us both, but you caught it with your hands- and don't say you didn't 'cause your hands and your shoulders left dents in the sides- and the van would have crushed my legs, but you were holding it up so that it wasn't..." I could hear how crazy it was, but I couldn't continue anymore. Tears were filling my eyes because of how stupid I must have sounded. I was so embarrassed.

Johan was staring at me in shock, his expression defensive.

"You think I lifted a van off you?" His tone questioned my sanity, but it made me suspicious. He spoke the way a very skilled actor would.

I merely nodded.

"No one will believe you, you know?" Johan's voice held an edge of derision to it.

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

Johan's face became a mask of surprise. I could see his gold-green eyes flicker. "Then why does it matter?" He sounded truly confused for the first time since I had met him.

"It matters to me," I whispered.

Johan frowned a little, his eyes thoughtful. "Can you just thank me and forget it?"

"Thank you."

"...You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

"Not a chance."

Johan sighed and turned away from me, his expression unreadable. He looked both amused and agitated at the exact same time. "Then I hope you enjoy your disappointment, 'cause my lips are sealed," he said.

I sighed. "Why did you even bother to save me?" I asked.

Johan paused for a moment as if trying to think of something, as if he didn't quite know himself. "I don't know," he whispered after a silent and unbearable moment.

I looked at him. "But you looked... so worried."

"Like I said," Johan whispered, looking at the ground. "I don't know."

He said nothing else as he turned and walked away, vanishing around the corner of the hallway. It took me a moment to move, and I made my way to the waiting room where Nerigon was waiting for me. He was relieved to see me all right, and the car ride home was fairly quiet. He kept on staring at me and starting to speak, but abruptly stopped and sighed.

When we reached the house, he spoke.

"Um... You'll need to call Lilith," he said with a nervous laugh.

I was horrified. "You told Mom?"

"Sorry."

I got out of the car and rushed in the house with an angry look as Nerigon chased after me, laughing. Mom was in hysterics, and I had to tell her that I was fine about thirty times before she believed me.

When I hung up, I was consumed by the mystery that Johan presented.

And I was a little more obsessed by Johan himself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He would never go for me, what was I thinking? He was way out of my league, and I was never going to be good enough for him. Did I even like him in that way? I was sure that some part of me was. I felt my cheeks turn red whenever I thought of him.

It made me blush worse to think of how he had held me in the parking lot, the concern that was written across his face, the concern for me.

I decided to go to bed early. Nerigon got worried about this, but he let me go, but constantly checked on me and asked if I was all right. I just told him again and again that I was. I took some Advil, and when I did, the pain vanished, and I drifted to sleep.

That was the first night that I dreamed of Johan Andersen.

Me: Oh dear! Judai is dreaming of Johan now!

Lucy: And Johan saved Judai from a car, and now Judai senses that something is different about Johan, but he doesn't know just what it is quite yet, so will he learn soon?

Me: If you wish to find out, please review and read on!

Lucy: Please, please, please review and we shall update ASAP!