Wow guys, thank you seriously for the comments.
It's all very encouraging.

Sorry for the delay.

School and overseas trips do that to you.

Hoorah!

--

"You don't think you could 'poof' some food for me could you?"

Julian laughed and raised an elegant eyebrow at her mockingly.
"And why should I do that for you? After all, you are the one who got us stuck in this mess."
The fact that he was grinning mischievously was the only thing reassuring Jenny that he wasn't entirely serious. Maybe it was the surreal edge to the whole situation or she was just feeling incredibly restless, because suddenly she felt very bold.
"Because," Jenny took a step forward, pointing at him to emphasize her words jokingly. "You love me."

He looked at her, head tilted slightly, his long fringe falling across his face.

"Yes, what of it?" His eyes sparkled tauntingly and Jenny stared at the figure before her, momentarily taken back in awe. In the flickering light cast by the flame, Julian looked completely mischievous and playful yet dangerous, and entirely unearthly. Jenny could see where the stories of Loki, of Púka, of Huehuecoyotl, of the monster under her bed, came from. Jenny blinked back to reality. Her stomach, obviously not caring whose presence she was in, rumbled again breaking her from her thoughts.

"You wouldn't let me starve, would you?" She looked up at him with mock puppy-dog eyes.

Still smiling he let go of the flame and it floated above their heads by the roof of the closet. Julian crossed his arms.

"You still owe me for getting us locked in here."

"No way," Jenny shook her head. "That was pay back for putting us all through this game."

"You chose to play the game willingly." He chuckled to himself. "You really do need to stop messing with things you don't understand. Look where you keep ending up."

Jenny scowled at him, crossing her arms too, and they both stood staring at each other in the middle of the closet.

Jenny was the first one to break, doubling over in laughter at the sight of Julian imitating her scowl back at her.

Julian stared back at her in confusion.

"What?..." Concern started to spread into his expression.
"Oh, don't tell me you're already going mad from confinement!?"

Slowly Jenny recovered from her laughing fit and turned back to face her company again.

"I'm sure I will go mad if I don't get food any time soon."

Julian just shook his head at her.

"And what have you got to offer me?"

The smile slowly slid from Jenny's face as she began to feel the impossibility of the situation. She knew exactly what he wanted, and considering their current situation, she wasn't really in the mood to be so generous.

"I haven't got anything, Julian. Must I remind you that I wasn't really provided with much time to think before I was pulled into the shadow world?"

"Again… This isn't my fault." He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "It was your call to play with things–"

"I don't understand. I know, I know." Lack of food was starting to make Jenny irritable. She'd been running for her life for the past eight hours and now lack of sleep and food was starting to exhaust her patience.

"But if you hadn't offered me the game, if you hadn't followed me around for the last 11 years of my life, then I never would have had to have made the decision in the first place. I shouldn't have had to make that decision."

She had been gesturing wildly during her small rant and now looked up to see Julian examining her face carefully.

"And if you never opened the door of this closet as a child, if your uncle had never sought more power than he could ever hope to restrain…" Julian trailed off and then he said very quietly, "I never forced you to play this game, Jenny."

Jenny sighed and covered her face with her hands. She was tired, she was sore, she was hungry and all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball on the hard concrete floor and cry – It wouldn't help anything, but there really was nothing else to be done.

Suddenly she felt the electric contact as a hand gently rested on her arm and her eyes flew open to see Julian standing just in front of her.

Jenny stood unmoving for a moment. She could never adjust to the perfection that was Julian, and she stared transfixed by the impossible colour of his eyes.

Then, reaching up with his other hand, Julian gently caressed the side of her face, the light touch making her breath catch in her throat.

Jenny frowned slightly and tilting her head away, closed her eyes trying to bring some semblance of order to her thoughts.

"Julian… stop." She wanted to push him away but she could barely control her arms.

She didn't want to have to deal with this right now. She already had more than enough to handle.

Finally Jenny managed to bring herself to place her hands against his chest and, trying to avoid falling apart at the feel of his smooth muscles beneath her hands, attempted to make him back up.

Her futile efforts though were no better than pushing against a brick wall in the hopes of knocking it over. He didn't move and instead she heard his cool voice whisper in her ear.

"Relax…"

Jenny scoffed at him.

"Relax?" she whispered back incredulously. "How can you expect me to 'Relax' at a time like this?"

However, despite her exasperation, she was finding it harder not to simply give in. Julian's hand continued to caress her face, the other now gently resting around her waist in a loose embrace.

"Because there's nothing else to be done." He whispered, repeating her earlier thoughts and turning them against her.

It was getting harder and harder for her to resist. She truly was too tired. His touch was becoming more and more comforting by the moment.

She allowed her head to rest on his shoulder and Julian slipped his other arm around her waist. They stood there for a moment, Jenny trying to reorganize her thoughts while Julian gently rubbed her back.

The moment was disrupted as Jenny's stomach growled.

Julian laughed quietly, the musical noise echoing faintly of the blank walls of the confined room.

"I suppose we really should get you something to eat."

He leaned back slightly, his arms still around her waist and examined her face. He brushed a strand of hair back from in front of her eyes and grinned.

"So what do you feel like?"

Jenny blinked at him.

"Uh… food?" she really was quite out of it.

Julian's eyes reflected his amusement.

"Fair enough… what type of food? Chinese? Thai? Italian? Indian? What do you feel like eating? Name it and it's yours!"

Jenny smiled.

"A decent sandwich would be fine."

She watched as Julian as he removed one of his hands from her waist and made a small gesture in the empty air beside him. A second later a tray of assorted sandwiches balanced on his hand.

Jenny raised an eyebrow at him.

"Show off." She muttered.

"Oh I'm sorry," he said holding the tray just out of her grasp. "I was under the impression you were incredibly hungry. Maybe I was wrong?"

She laughed. "Hardly!" And, extracting the tray from his grasp she sat on the floor and began to eat.

--

Ok, so everyone got a little bit ooc for this chapter… well the whole story really.

Oh well, we were too busy having fun to realise in time and fix it.

The good news? We now know where we are going with this story! Hoorah!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Regards,

Custom Built and friend.

P.S. go listen to Uno by Muse.