Wildfires and Whirlwinds

Chapter 2

Pan woke slowly, enjoying the comfortable warmth surrounding him and almost lulling him back to sleep. He shifted slightly to get closer to the heat that seemed to be originating from whatever he was laying against and started to drift off again, when his heat source moved. He felt something tighten around his waist, pulling him closer into the warmth before hearing an approving murmur from somewhere above him. Now lying completely still Pan slowly opened his eyes, greeted with the sight of a wide expanse of chest then looking up to see a pair of sleepy yellow orange eyes looking down at him.

“Mmm, good morning.” Xane mumbled with a lazy grin, arm tightening around Pan’s waist once again.

Realizing his own arm was wrapped around Xane as well, Pan pulled it back and began struggling out of the embrace. Xane didn’t try to stop him, just watched curiously as he continued to scramble away from him, before reaching the end of the bed and falling off.

“You alright?” Xane asked, though he didn’t move to check, instead laying back and stretching on the bed.

Pan glared at the side of the bed before standing up, continuing to glare at Xane once he did so. “You said you wouldn’t try anything last night.”

“Look where I’m laying, kid. If anyone tried something, that’d be you. Not that I’m complaining, waking up with you in my arms was certainly enjoyable.” Xane said this with another lazy grin and Pan balked, realizing Xane had in fact stayed on his side of the bed through out the night.

Recovering quickly, Pan once again glared at Xane before turning around and searching for his clothes, “You could’ve moved me.” He muttered, hearing the other laugh from the bed, “If you say so.”

Pan scowled even more but didn’t reply, getting frustrated when he didn’t see his clothes anywhere nearby. “Where the hell are my clothes?” He asked, turning to look back over at Xane, who had finally decided to get out of bed, stretching once again.

The demon blinked, surprised by Pan’s tone, before pointing over to the dresser nearest to the brunette. Pan glanced over and felt his face get hot when he saw his clothes lying there in a neat folded pile on top of the dresser. “Oh.”

He heard the other chuckle once again as he picked up the clothes and headed for the door. When the door didn’t open for him, Pan sighed, “Will you please unlock the doors? I need to get changed and there is no way I’m doing it in front of you."

“Fine, fine.” Glancing back Pan saw Xane pick up a small device on the bedside table and push a few buttons. A small beep sounded and Pan tried the door once again, glad when it opened and headed down the hall into the bathroom. He dressed quickly, wanting to be out of the demon’s clothes and in his own, and feeling generally uneasy about being in any state of undress with last night’s events still fresh in his mind.

Finished changing, Pan checked himself in the mirror, brushing his hair forward with his hands to try to straighten it out. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a tub in the corner. Curious, he walked over and pulled back the frosted glass door to look inside. He wasn’t sure when the last time he had even seen a full tub, most had been replaced years before he was even born with vapor showers that are about half the size and use less than a third of the water. But Pan was surprised when the door revealed that the tub was much larger than what it appeared from the outside. Originally thinking that it was only a couple feet wide and maybe five feet in length, he saw that it actually went deeper than the rest of the bathroom. All in all the tub was about five by seven feet, looking more like a hot tub than a normal bathtub.

Actually, how did even have a tub at all, let alone of this size? Because of the law that had been passed back then to conserve water, it was almost impossible to have a bathtub and stay within the boundaries set on water use. Shrugging at the mystery Pan started towards the door catching his reflection in the mirror again he paused. Speaking of mysteries, how had his clothes been clean and folded anyways? Xane had been sleeping next to him all night, so he wouldn’t have been able to wash them, right?

Shaking his head Pan picked up the discarded clothes but didn’t see where to place them, so he took them with him and left the bathroom. Looking around he followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen, finding Xane with his back to him at one of the counters, still in just the pair of sweat pants, much to Pan’s dislike.

Xane glanced over when Pan entered the kitchen and glanced at the clothes in his hands, “Drop them.”

Pan paused, confused, “What?”

“The clothes, drop them.” Xane said, pointing to the ground before turning back around.

Pan glanced down at the clothes before looking back at Xane, still confused; he shrugged, and let the clothes drop to the ground. As soon as he did, he could hear a slight whirring noise and looked down to see a small round machine roll across the floor toward the clothes. The machine was shaped like a dome, low enough to the ground that you couldn’t see the wheels running it, with numerous little what looked like hatches around the outside.

“You… own a robot.” Pan said, glancing at Xane’s back before looking down at the robot again. One of the hatches on the front of it opened up and a small clamp extended, picking up the pile of clothes, before turning around in a circle and rolling away again. Pan followed it a bit to see it go to the other side of a one of the cupboards and towards a small opening in the wall. Once through the little doorway a panel slid in place covering the opening, blending in so well that if Pan hadn’t seen the small door, he wouldn’t even know it was there.

“Well, I’m pretty bad at keeping the place clean on my own, so I just have him do it.” Xane said from behind Pan.

“’Him’? What does it have some sort of A.I. system in it or something?” Pan asked, turning back around to look at the demon that was still messing with something on the counter.

“Nah, I just feel weird calling him an ‘it’ all the time.”

Pan rolled his eyes, “I bet you even have a name for it too. What are you doing anyways?”

“Breakfast, what else?” Xane replied, moving to the side a bit to show what was in front of him on the counter. Sitting there was a number of clear bowls, one filled with what Pan guessed was beaten eggs, and the others were different types of chopped vegetables. Xane was just finishing cutting up a large red tomato, before picking up the chopping board and sliding the tomato bits into an empty bowl.

Surprised, Pan asked, “You’re making breakfast? From scratch?”

Xane quirked an eyebrow at him, “Yeah, is there a problem with that? Oh, I forgot about humans in this era and their obsession with that disgusting instant food stuff.” Xane made a face before grabbing the frying pan sitting hanging from the rack above him and setting it on the counter. Pan could just see the red light from under the pan, as another lit up on the handle of the pan as well. He then reached up and grabbed a second skillet, and doing the same with this one as he had with the other. Great, this guy is loaded enough he can afford a robot as well as one those ‘all-around’ stovetops[1].

“It’s not an obsession. So sorry if it’s expensive as hell to get fresh food.” Pan argued. “Look, I need to go. Thanks for not raping me last night, and goodbye.”

He heard Xane chuckle behind him as he made his way to the door, but ignored him. It wasn’t until he made it to the door that he realized Xane probably wasn’t laughing at what Pan said, as much as what he was trying to do, because once again the door wouldn’t budge. “Aw, come on! What asinine reason is it now that I can’t leave?”

“Well, you’re safety for one.” Xane said offhandedly, grabbing the bowl of beaten eggs and pouring half of it into each skillet.

Pan looked unconvinced, “My safety? It’s broad daylight out! I can understand the not going out in the middle of the night, but when it’s nine o’clock in the morning? That’s just ridiculous.”

Now Xane actually looked at him, and those slitted eyes focusing on his so intently caused a shiver to run down his spine, “You really think that people only go missing when it’s dark out?” When Pan didn’t reply, he continued, “Well, it must be great living in that fantasy land you do, because I say you would have about a 50 percent chance of getting back to your home if I let you out that door alone.”

Pan had to look away, those eyes were just too intense, but he couldn’t, they had him rooted to the spot. It was like looking into a furnace, and they seemed to be looking right through him, analyzing every part of him. When another shiver ran through his body uncontrolled Pan finally was able to tear his eyes away and instead focused on an imaginary spot on the wall.

“I… I thought demons aren’t like that anymore, aren’t they supposed to help humans?” Pan said, still looking at that spot on the wall.

He heard Xane sigh before saying, “They are, but when your average demon is at least 300 years old, and they’ve been told for most of their lives that humans are beneath them and just prey, suddenly having it where humans are supposed to be equals and treated as such, it takes a while to get used to.” Pan didn’t look over at the demon while he talked, but he did lower his gaze, feeling slightly defeated.

“Not only that, but if you left now that’d be a waste of a good omelet.” Xane said suddenly with a cheerful voice, ruining the dramatic mood and causing Pan to look back at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, I’m not going to eat all of this. So, grab a seat, and once we’re done eating I’ll escort you home.” He motioned with a spatula toward one of the seats that sat around a small island in the middle of the kitchen. Pan looked at him odd, but Xane had turned back around, now adding vegetables to the two omelets.

Still watching Xane’s back, Pan walked over to the seat Xane had pointed out and sat down. There was a silence in the room while Xane finished cooking the two omelets, giving Pan an opportunity to look around the kitchen a little better. It looked like the rest of Xane’s house did, 20th century design with a bit of new technology mixed in. Jeez, walking into this place is almost like going into a time machine.

“Here ya go.” Xane said, placing a plate in front of Pan with a good-sized omelet on it and a cup of coffee.

“Oh, thanks.” Pan picked up his fork to begin eating, but paused when Xane sat down across from him with his own breakfast.

Xane glanced over at him when he noticed Pan looking at him, “Well, go on. I didn’t poison it or anything.”

Pan rolled his eyes but took a bite of the omelet. It was good. It was better than good, it was amazing. Pan didn’t even know the last time he had something freshly made, not even most restaurants made things from scratch anymore. Well, not the ones he could afford, anyway.

“Well?”

Pan shrugged, “It’s alright.”

He heard Xane chuckle, “Just alright?”

Pan shrugged again, “Yeah.”

Xane laughed again before starting on his own meal. Now that they were this close, Pan could study the other’s face a little bit more clearly, though mostly he just focused on Xane’s unusual eyes. With the brightness of the room the cat-like pupils were narrow, and he could now see that the color around the middle of the eyes was a bright yellow that slowly changed to a deep orange closer to the edge. And currently those odd colored eyes were looking straight at him, with an eyebrow raised in a question, probably because Pan had been just sitting there staring at the demon’s eyes for who knows how long. Struggling to come with some kind of question or topic to cover up the awkwardness of the moment, Pan blurted out the first thing to come to mind.

“How do you have a bath tub?” Nice, Pan, real smooth. He groaned inwardly, and let his head fall forward, knowing that Xane was probably smirking again, the bastard.

“Excuse me?” He could even hear the smirk in the damn demon’s voice.

Deciding that he had already made an ass of himself, and might as well go all the way, Pan continued, “You’re tub, in the bathroom, it’s huge. I thought with the whole ‘conservation water act’ from all those years ago made it so everyone had to have vapor showers, or at least small normal showers.”

“Oh, that.” Pan glanced up now, and sure enough, Xane was smirking at him. “You’d be correct on that. Normally you can’t have a full sized tub installed in your home, let alone one of that size, but if you have your own private supply of water then you don’t have to worry about the conservation act.”

“Private supply? Meaning… what, exactly?”

“Wells. All my water is from a well that was dug almost 300 years ago. Makes me glad I stuck with this place for so long if only to have a good soak every once in a while.”

“’A good soak’? The things large enough to fit a half dozen people, at least! What do you do, swim in the damn thing?”

Xane chuckled slightly before replying, “Of course not, and that’s not my only bathroom, there’s another with a more regular sized tub next to one of spare bedrooms.”

“Oh… Wait, you said the well is 300 years old, right?” Xane nodded in response, and Pan fell silent for a little while before asking, “Have you been living here since this place was built?”

“Well, not always actually living here, and its been rebuilt several times. But I have owned it the entire time, why?”

Things weren’t adding up, Pan knew demons lived for hundreds of years longer than humans, but even then, something wasn’t right. “How old are you, exactly?”

Xane had to think a little while before responding, “Umm, four hundred and… twenty six years old, I think. Might be off by a few years.”

Pan just stared at him, “…That’s not possible.”

Xane blinked in surprise, “Why not?”

“Because…” Pan fumbled for words, “I-it’s just not! A normal demon’s growth rate is that it takes them 100 years to get to almost the same age as physically wise as an 18 year old human, right?” Without waiting for a response he continued to ramble on, “And then, after that 100 year mark their growth slows down to around 20 to 35 years to age the equivalent of one human year. B-but you… For you to be over 400 years old… that’s closer to 50 years to one human year! And that’s not possible!”

Xane watched him in silence as Pan struggled with his breath, finally done with his rant, before smirking at the human again, “You’ve read through your Demonology books a bit, haven’t you?”

Pan glared at him but didn’t respond, instead taking a rather large gulp of coffee to help his now parched throat.

Sighing, Xane explained, “Well, sorry to bust your bubble, kid. But I am indeed over 400 years old. And if you read through your book more thoroughly, I’m sure you’d find that there are some demons that are powerful enough that they live much longer than normal demons. Just so happens that almost all elementals fall under that category.”

Slumping back in his chair, Pan mumbled an ‘oh’ before taking another bite of his omelet, somewhat dejectedly.

“Don’t look so down, kid. It’s not the end of the world just cause I’m older than you thought I was.” Xane said this with an easy smile.

“Yeah, yeah.” Pan muttered. “Alright, I have another question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Why… about last night…” Pan trailed off, but Xane seemed to get his meaning.

“Why did I give you that wonderful night of pleasure?” Xane said with a grin that widened as Pan glared at him. “Or why did I even bother with you at all, and not just letting you wander the streets on your own until something probably worse than me found you?”

“Ah, the second one.”

“Well, I don’t really like hearing about some human on the news that’s suddenly gone missing or has been found dead or close to it, especially when it’s suspected that there was demon involvement. So, I try to step in when I can, it keeps the relations between demons and humans a lot more smooth that way.”

Pan looked slightly surprised, “Meaning, you do this often?”

Xane nodded, “Yeah, well, not specifically taking them home and having all that fun with them,” Pan glared at him again, “but I do walk around that area occasionally, making sure there isn’t some fool wandering around trying to get themselves killed.” He smirked at Pan when he said this, who only continued to glare.

They ate in silence for a while, Xane watching the other male who seemed to be either ignoring him or in deep thought, he began to think Pan was done with his questioning when Pan spoke up again. “If you normally don’t do all that you do… all that you did last night. Why did you?”

“It would be all lot less confusing if you just call it what it was.” Xane replied with a knowing smile.

“And that would be…” Pan asked before taking a drink of his coffee, which quickly turned out to be a bad move when Xane’s smile turned into a grin and he said, “An extremely enjoyable round of fellatio.”

Pan choked on his mouthful of coffee and glowered at Xane, feeling his cheeks redden.

“Victory!” Xane suddenly cried out, slapping the counter top, while Pan stared at him in surprise. Is he on something or is he just insane?

Noticing the odd look, Xane explained, “You blushed, I’ve been trying for the past few minutes to get you to but you’ve resisted pretty well. I guess being completely blunt and crude is just too much for you.”

It’s decided, he’s insane. Pan thought, shaking his head. “And why were you trying to make me blush?”

Xane flashed him a smile, “Cause you’re damn sexy when you do.”

Pan glared at him and thought, note to self, don’t blush. “Could we get back to the original question, please?”

“Right, what was the question again?” Xane said with a sheepish smile, scratching the back of his head, but when Pan gave him an exasperated look he laughed before saying, “I’m just kidding, jeez.”

“The reason why for last night was I was curious.” Xane shrugged, but Pan just looked at him confused, “Curious about what?”

“Well, you, of course.”

Pan was still confused, “What’s… there to be curious about me?”

Xane was quiet for awhile as if thinking how to phrase his answer, “What do you know about Elemental demons?”

“Uh, not much. Before meeting you I thought Fire demons were walking balls of flames or something.” Pan said slightly abashed, “I wasn’t expecting you to look so... normal.”

Xane laughed a bit, “So, I take when it comes to our… interactions with others, you don’t know too much?”

Pan nodded, before remembering something, “Oh, my professor told said something about how Elementals only, uh, have relations with other Elementals.”

Xane, in his usual blunt manner, responded back, “Yes, usually Elemental demons only have sex with other Elemental demons. But you don’t know why, correct?” When Pan shook his head, Xane continued, “It’s because only other Elementals can stand the natural state of our skin.”

“Natural state?”

Xane nodded, “An Elemental’s skin takes on the properties of whatever element it is, so in example, a Water demon would feel cold and clammy, while a Fire demon could actually burn the skin. Of course one of the first things your taught as a kid is how to control this, but its hard to an enjoy a good romp in the sack when you’re making sure not to burn your partner’s skin off.”

“Oookay… But what does…” Pan stopped as things began clicking in his head, “…You weren’t holding back last night, were you?” This was less of a question than a statement but Xane nodded anyways before responding.

“No, hence the reason why I was so curious. Humans are especially sensitive to Elemental’s skin, the fact that you didn’t seem bothered by it is more than a little odd.”

“So, that means what exactly?

“Actually, I was hoping you’d be able to fill me in on that part.” Pan looked confused again, so Xane continued to say, “Perhaps somewhere in your family’s history there’s someone with some sort of magical background, something that would help you be more resilient than normal.”

“Uhh… no, don’t think so.”

“You should check then. I have a terminal here if you’d like to access it, or if you don’t think you’re family would know I believe there’s a facility near by that could check your family tree, see if there’s any type of discrepancies there. Either that or-”

Pan held up his hands to cut him off, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow it down a bit. What I meant was that I don’t know as in it’s not possible for me to find out, at least not by asking my family. I’m an orphan so, that’d be a little tough for me.”

Xane blinked before looking apologetic, “Oh… I’m sorry, that was so rude of me. Can I ask what happened to them?”

“You could ask, but I couldn’t tell you. I was abandoned as a kid, so for all I know they could still be alive out there.” Pan said this with a shrug, looking unconcerned.

Xane, however, looked confused now, “Couldn’t you look them up? I thought all humans had that ID thing in their arms. So shouldn’t you have it too?”

He was right, about 60 years ago, before the demons had stepped in to help and when the world was getting to be at its worst, a law was passed that limited the amount of children a family could have down to two, and only if they met a required minimum set by the government. The law was meant to help with population control, because things were desperately getting out of hand, but it also singled out many families that were deemed too poor to properly care for a child. Because of this, many people became desperate and either ignored the law all together and still had their own children, or began taking the babies of other families. It became so bad that the government had to step in once again a few years later and pass a new law that required all newborns to have a microchip placed in their arms at birth by the hospital to identify the child and it’s parents. At the time it was rather barbaric, but 50 years later and it was still proving helpful in keeping things running smoothly, so nothing had been done to remove either of the laws.

Pan shrugged again, taking another bite of his meal before answering, “Not at the beginning, I do now of course, but when I was first found there’s wasn’t any sort of records or anything about me they could find.”

“You don’t seem too upset about it.”

“After over twenty years, you get used to it.” Finishing up the last of his breakfast, Pan asked, “Can I head home now, or are you going to keep me hostage here?”

Xane smirked, grabbing both of their plates and setting them down in the sink, “I suppose I could escort you back to where you live. Though you’d have much more fun if you stayed here.” He flashed a grin over to Pan, who just glared back.

“I doubt that. Now, get changed, I want to go home.”

Xane sighed loudly, “Fine. You’re just no fun.”

Pan rolled his eyes as the demon walked past him and back into the bedroom. Getting up from his seat, Pan went over to the window and looked out. He didn’t really get to see where they were before, so he wasn’t expecting the forest located only about twenty feet from the house. He guessed that the kitchen was actually located on the back of the house, and that Xane must live on the edge of town, to have a forest of any size this close to his home. He was still looking through the window when he felt two arms wrap around his middle and someone come up behind him.

“What’cha looking at?” Xane murmured into Pan’s ear, causing a shiver to run down the brunette’s body.

When the initial shock passed, Pan started to struggle to free his self from the other’s grasp, “Get off me!” Pan growled, and Xane did so with a slight chuckle.

“Well, you were the one in such a hurry to get home, so let’s go.” Xane headed toward the door and held it open for Pan, who watched him wearily as he walked past and out the door. Pan’s assumptions about the house had been right, now outside he could see the forest extended quite a bit a ways in both directions, meaning if he remembered the area surrounding the city correctly, that meant Xane lived on the south edge of town, in the deepest part of D-District there was. No wonder he didn’t want Pan wandering around by his self.

Following the small path that led around the large home and towards the front, continued to look around taking in the house and its surroundings. He almost immediately spotted the pool that was off to one side, noting at how ironic it was that a Fire Demon owned a swimming pool.

“You know, it’s not that cold out, perhaps a skinny dip is in order?” Pan jumped slightly when Xane spoke into his ear, close enough that he could feel the demon’s breath. He spun around raising a hand to smack Xane away but the other pulled back before he could, smirking.

“What? It’s just a suggestion.” Xane said with a shrug, still with that damn smirk.

Pan glared at him but continued walking forward, opting to ignore the demon instead of dignifying him with a response. Once out front Pan stopped and stared. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was picturing when he thought what an actual ‘demon’ neighborhood would look like, but this certainly wasn’t it. It looked normal; there was no other way to put it. Like your everyday suburban neighborhood, one of the yards was even littered with children’s toys.

“Something wrong?” Xane asked stepping up beside him.

“Uh, no. Just not expecting everything to look so… ordinary.”

“What did you think it would look like? A tribal village or something like that?”

Pan scoffed, “No, just not… this.” How was he supposed to be afraid of someplace like this? Starting to think Xane had just been pulling his leg, Pan shot a glare at the other before starting to walk again.

“What?” Xane asked innocently, noticing the withering look, “I wasn’t lying about the danger, just because this is a nice area, doesn’t mean this whole side of the city is.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Pan mumbled under his breath, he glanced around for a vehicle of some sort that would be serving as their ride, and realized what was missing from this scene. Stopping once again Pan looked around more fully and sure enough there were no cars, anywhere. Only a few of the houses had garages, but from what he could see of them they were all empty, and so was the driveways in front of the houses.

“Something wrong?”

“How are you taking me home?” Pan asked tentatively, afraid he already knew the answer.

“Same way we got here, of course.”

“And ‘same way we got here’ meaning…”

“Me carrying you.”

Getting the answer he was truly dreading, Pan started forward again, “Yeah, uh, not going to happen.”

“What, you’re going to walk the entire way? That’d take over an hour with how slow you humans walk. Come on, it’s not like I’m going to try anything.”

Almost to the sidewalk, Pan called over his shoulder, “Right, because you’ve done such a successful job at keeping your hands to yourself this morning. So sorry if it takes too long, but I’m walking home on my own two feet and there is no way in hell you are going to be carrying m-“ Pan broke off when his foot hit the sidewalk and once again that odd boneless feeling passed through his entire body. With no strength behind his limbs to support his self any longer or stop his forward momentum, Pan continued forward and down, his face quickly heading toward the concrete. But he was saved from kissing the sidewalk by arm around his waist, hoisting him back up, before flipping him over a familiar shoulder.

Stunned by the rapid change of events, Pan blinked as he watched Xane’s house start disappear behind them as Xane increased his speed down the street.

Though the silence only lasted for a couple seconds, “H-hey! What the hell?! Put me down!”

“Why? This way is much quicker than you walking on your own.”

“And it’s a lot more embarrassing too! If you’re going to carry me could you at least do it so my ass isn’t in there air the whole time?”

“But it’s such a nice ass. And carrying you like this makes it much easier to admire it.” Xane emphasized this last point by sliding a hand up Pan’s thigh and over his bottom, squeezing it slightly and making the younger male yelp.

“Gods-dammit! Keep your hands off my ass!” Pan yelled, thrashing in Xane’s grip, though it didn’t work at all. After a few more moments of swearing and futile kicking, Pan finally settled down. “You said last night that the barrier was only that strong the first time you went through it, so why do I almost eat cement back there?”

“No, I said it would be rather strong the first time through. After that one time it gets less intense the more times you pass through the barrier. And if you need proof, the fact that you are already back to being fully aware and functional should be enough.”

Pan fell silent for a little while, realizing Xane was right. He wasn’t sure how long he was out of it last night, but comparatively, this time through the barrier was much less draining. Frowning, Pan muttered, “That still doesn’t give you a reason to fondle my ass.”

“What can I say, I just can’t help myself. Though I don’t know why you’re so against it, you seemed to enjoy yourself last night pretty well.” As Xane said this the hand still lying on Pan’s bottom squeezed again, eliciting another sharp yelp from the brunette.

“T-that was just a reaction! I don’t like… things like that.”

“Things like what? Blowjobs? Every one likes those.”

Flushing, and glad that Xane couldn’t see it, “Not that! I mean being with guys, I’m not like that.”

Xane was silent for a couple moments before he finally said, “You mean, you’re not gay?”

“Right, not gay. And if you would’ve listened to me last night instead of just doing whatever you wanted, you might’ve realized that sooner.”

“So you’re being serious, you’re not gay?”

“Yes! Now stop saying it like it’s the most impossible thing to happen.”

There was silence before, “…Are you sure you’re not gay, because for a straight man you really seemed to enj-” “I’m not gay!”

Xane chuckled, “If you say so.”

Pan grumbled under his breath, and though Xane could only catch a couple words he got the gist of what the human was calling him, and chuckled once again.

“Stop laughing at me, asshole!” Pan growled, once again kicking out.

Once the brunette calmed down, Xane smirked, “You definitely have a language problem, don’t you?”

“Only when it comes to you.”

“Oh, I’m touched.”

“You’re an ass is what you are.”

Xane started to laugh, but stifled it when Pan started kicking him again, “Sorry, sorry, I’ll try not to laugh anymore.”

Pan settled down again, satisfied with the victory, though still rather peeved about the embarrassing way Xane was carrying him. There were plenty of others way for Xane to carry him that did not involve his ass in the air for the world to see, though obviously this was Xane’s favorite. Trying to get his mind off of how humiliated he currently was, Pan started to look around, trying to take in what he could of D-District now that it was light out and he could see. After only a few moments though did something seem exceptionally odd to the brunette.

“Xane, where is everyone?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, where is everyone? We’ve been out here for at least 10 minutes and I don’t think I’ve seen a single demon yet.”

“Oh, that. Well, most of them are asleep still, it’s pretty early.”

“Early? It’s almost 10 o’clock!”

“Yeah, and most demons wake up at noon, the rest even later than that.”

“…Oh.”

“I thought you read through your Demonology books, shouldn’t you have known that?”

“I didn’t memorize the damn thing. Just read a few bits and pieces.” Pan said defensively.

“Or you looked through at all the fancy graphs and didn’t actually read the book at all.” When Pan didn’t answer, Xane continued, “I take it by your silence I guessed correctly?”

“Shut it.” Pan muttered, earning him another chuckle from the demon. He was about to make a scathing remark back when Xane suddenly stopped on top of building near the edge.

“So, which way from here?”

“What?” Pan tried to look around but with how Xane was carrying him, it made it a little hard.

“We’re back at where I picked you up last night, so how do you get to your place from here?” Xane asked over his shoulder.

Pan made an exasperated sound, “I don’t know, I can’t see anything. Look, there’s no Ways(2) near where I live, so just put me down close to the human side and I’ll get there on my own.”

“But I want to see where you live.” Xane began moving again, heading towards H-District, staying along the edge of the roofs.

“And I don’t want you to, so put me down.”

“You know that I could just follow you anyways.”

“Yes, because that’s not creepy or anything.” Pan muttered sarcastically before sighing in defeat, “Fine, you can do the creepy puppy dog thing and follow me home, but I’m not going to go the whole way thrown over your shoulder, so down. Now.”

Xane kept going for a few more moments before suddenly jumping down to the street, and placing Pan beside him. Stumbling slightly from the rapid change Pan leaned against the closest light post for support and tried to regain some composure.

“You alright? You’re looking a little pale.” Xane asked, stepping in to look closer at Pan’s face.

Pan pushed him away though with his free hand, “I just spent the past fifteen minutes upside down bouncing on your shoulder, so sorry if my stomach is a little upset.”

“You didn’t seem too bad when I was running.”

“That was before a sudden stop and flipping me over onto my feet. The combination of all those has got me a little wobbly.” Taking another deep breath, Pan straightened up and looked around. He didn’t recognize the area, but the nearby street sign gave him enough information to figure out which way he needed to go. Without a word he started in the right direction, not checking to see if Xane was indeed following him. Though the whistling tune behind him was a pretty sure sign that he was.

Pan sighed, “If you’re bored why don’t you go home.”

“Who said I was bored?”

“You’re whistling, usually when someone is whistling they’re… bored...” Pan broke off when he glanced over at Xane, who looked back at him with slight confusion.

“Something up?”

“Ah, no… Just didn’t realize you had gone back to looking human.” Pan started walking again, glancing at Xane out of the corner of his eyes every once in awhile.

“Well, are going over to the human side, it’s easier than having to deal with the staring.” Xane said this with a shrug, running a hand through his spiky hair, which was now a more natural dark red instead of the intense bright it usually was. The most noticeable change though was his eyes, the pupils now were normal and the color was completely different, dark cerulean instead of the bright yellow orange they once were. Hell, even his skin color was different, no longer that freshly showered pinkish tone, now a light tan.

Pan snorted but kept walking, earning him a curious look from Xane, “What’s so funny about wanting to blend in?”

“Besides the fact that you look like you just walked through a time machine?” When Xane just looked at him confused, Pan continued, “Your clothes, genius. That style is what, a hundred years old? A little hard to blend in when you can’t keep up the current century’s style.”

Xane glanced down at his clothes, before looking back up at Pan incredulously, “Hey, this is style is timeless.”

Pan rolled his eyes, “Right, which is why you’re the only one I’ve seen wearing it.”

“At least I don’t look like a Star Trek or some other cheesy space-flick knock-off wannabe.”

“I do n- Wait, what’s ‘Star Trek’?”

“Don’t’ tell me… You’ve never heard of Star Trek?” Xane looked completely surprised, and when Pan slowly shook his head ‘no’ he raised a hand to his forehead, “Oh, Gods, you are so young. I think I can hear the sound of millions of fanboys rolling in their graves over the blasphemy that this generation knows nothing of Star Trek.”

Rolling his eyes once again at Xane’s overdramatic exclamation, Pan continued down the street, self consciously looking down at his own clothes as he did so. There wasn’t anything wrong with his outfit, was there? He was wearing a cream colored sleeveless shirt that had a v-cut to the neck and was edged in dark green, with a long-sleeved high collared shirt underneath that was the opposite, dark green with cream edges, while his pants were even darker than the rest of his outfit, the green was so dark it was almost black. It was a fairly common outfit and it fit him well, accentuating the good things about his body, while effectively hiding what he considered the bad.

Xane effectively cut through Pan’s thoughts when he muttered, “Don’t know how you can say you’re not gay, not with an outfit like that.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my clothes, everyone wears stuff like this today. It’s called being in style.” Pan said indignantly, crossing his arms in defiance.

Xane scoffed, “No, its called looking ridiculous. I can’t believe those nerds actually got it right when it came to fashion in this time period.”

As Xane was saying this they rounded a corner, and Pan was glad to see what he had been looking for only a few feet away. Sitting next to the edge of the road was a Sky-Lift(3) terminal, which looked like a bus stop; only one side was taken up with two side-by-side monitors, one almost three times the size of the other. The larger monitor showed a map of H-District and all the available stops, while the smaller one was the input device for where you needed to go.

Walking more quickly and completely forgetting about their conversation, Pan headed for the terminal and over to the small monitor. Or he would have if Xane hadn’t grabbed his arm.

Annoyed, Pan turned around, “What?”

Xane was looking uneasily at the terminal, “You’re taking a Sky-Lift?”

“Yeah, it’s the fastest way back to my apartment, why? Don’t tell me your afraid of them.” Pan smirked at this last part, and Xane frowned at him.

“No, of course not. Just didn’t realize you lived that far.” He released his hold on Pan’s arm and the brunette smirked again before heading over to the monitor, quickly inputting where he wanted to go. When it prompted on how many riders, Pan was about to put in one when Xane quickly reached around him and typed in two.

“You didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easily, do you?” Xane finished the transaction and paid for the two tickets and handed one to Pan when the machine spit out the two small pieces of plastic.

“I can pay for my own ticket.” Pan said as he took the ticket and walked over to opposite side of the terminal to lean against the wall and wait for the lift to arrive.

Xane smiled and came over beside him, mimicking Pan and leaning against the wall as well, “I’m sure you can.”

Pan looked around, while it was getting a little late in the morning, there still weren’t too many people out and about, mostly because this area was almost exclusively college students who were sleeping off their hangovers from the night before. When the lift appeared a few minutes later Pan stood up straight again and headed over, feeding his ticket into the small slot beside the door before walking inside and taking a seat in the corner, glancing up when Xane sat across from him. He looked back outside the window, watching as the Sky-Lift started forward and rose to get back on the main line.

“So, now what?” Pan asked after a couple minutes, still looking out the window.

“Hm?”

Pan sighed before explaining, “What happens now? About me being… abnormal compared to other humans. You were talking about something with looking up my parents, isn’t there some other way to find out more?”

Xane frowned in thought, “Well, I’m not too sure myself.” He grinned childishly and Pan gave him a blank stare. Huffing slightly that his small attempt of lightening the mood hadn’t worked, Xane continued, “Since I haven’t heard of anything like this before, the only thing I can think of is to contact the Council…”

Pan blinked, “Council?”

“Yeah, the Council for Elemental demons, a bunch of old dingbats that like to shove their noses into things that don’t concern them, but hey, that’s politics, right?” He said this with a slight smirk, once again trying to lighten the heavy mood inside the lift.

Pan ignored Xane’s poor attempt at humor, instead focusing on the first part of what the demon had said, “So, what would this Council do?”

Xane sighed, “That’s just it, I don’t know what all they would do. But they are known to take things to the extreme a lot, which is the exact why I won’t be contacting them.”

Confused, Pan asked, “I thought you just said that’s the only thing you could think of doing.” When Xane nodded in response, he continued, “Would they really take things that extreme that you wouldn’t even ask?”

“Trust me, for right now not telling them is the best thing. You don’t know how pushy a bunch of millenium old demons can be, and the fact that you’re human pretty much puts you about the same level as an animal to a lot of them. Which means they’d respect your boundaries and rights the same as they would an animal.”

Pan sighed dejectedly, “Meaning not at all.”

“Exactly.”

Sighing again, Pan looked back out the window, “Well, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the whole thing if I were you anyways, since I’m not gay it’s not like you and me are ever going to get together, and I’m not currently in the market for a demon girlfriend, especially an Elemental after all you’ve told me.”

He saw Xane shrug out of the corner of his eye and then the demon was gone. Blinking, Pan looked over to where Xane had been sitting, which was now an empty chair, and was about to look around the rest of the lift when an arm landed on his shoulders and a hand grabbed his chin turning his head to the side to where Xane was now sitting beside him, their faces only inches apart from each other. Before Pan could voice out a protest Xane closed the distance between them and covered Pan’s mouth with his, taking advantage of the brunette’s surprise to deftly slip a tongue into the other’s mouth. It took all of about 30 seconds for Pan to finally get over the initial shock of the sudden change of events to start to fight back, pushing against Xane’s chest and trying to turn his head away. Once Pan started fighting to get free Xane pulled back, a satisfied grin plastered on his face.

Panting slightly, Pan glared at the demon, “What the hell was that for?! I just got done saying that I’m not gay! What, are you deaf?” Xane didn’t reply and just kept smiling that self-satisfied smirk, which only succeeded in pissing Pan off even more. “And stop smiling, bastard! It’s just as bad as that damn laugh!”

Xane’s grin widened, “There it is.”

Huffing slightly in annoyance, Pan asked, “There what is?”

“That stubborn, fiery attitude of yours. You get all melancholy when your serious, I had to do something to lighten the mood.” As Xane said this he reclined back in his chair, flashing Pan another grin.

Pan blinked in surprise, “Wait, you-” He was interrupted by a resounding ding from above them.

“That means we’re almost there, right?” Xane asked, sitting forward in his seat again.

“Oh, y-yeah.” Pan looked around and saw that they were in fact coming into the terminal. This area was quite a bit busier than where they had just left, there was a lot more people walking along the street, and as they got closer to the terminal he saw there were many waiting to board. As the lift started to slow down Pan stood up and Xane followed suit, gesturing for Pan to go ahead of him.

Pan shook his head and stayed against the back wall, “No way, I don’t trust you behind me, so you go first.”

Xane shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the door, waiting patiently as the lift came to a complete stop and the door slid open. As soon as Xane had stepped through the door Pan jumped forward, hitting the close button and inputted the command for the lift to start up again. As it swung into motion Xane turned around, surprise written across his face as the lift moved away from the terminal, with Pan in tow. He could see the angry faces of those that had been standing in line, but was only concerned with Xane, who was no longer looking surprised, now he was smiling, no, grinning would be a more accurate term, before giving Pan a saucy little wave and laughing before turning away.

Pan frowned as the lift rounded a corner and he lost sight of the demon, the plan had gone perfectly, ditching Xane in a neighborhood that was no where near where Pan lived, and because there weren’t any D-Ways close by, that meant it’d be heard for Xane to keep up with the lifts speed without breaking the law, so he couldn’t follow Pan back to his real home. But Pan was having a hard time feeling good about tricking the demon, not with how positively happy Xane had seemed when he realized what Pan had done. Now instead of glad and excited, Pan felt more like a mouse that thought it had it escaped the cat’s claws only to find out it was just being toyed with and caught once again.

He shook his head and sat back down, he was being ridiculous. Xane had probably done that just to unnerve him, which Pan reluctantly had to admit worked, but he couldn’t see a way for the demon to track him down. Taking a deep breath to clear his head he heard a small beeping coming from the input screen next to the door, and realized he had never told the lift where to go, just to go forward. He leaned over and typed in what he needed to head back in the direction of his place, it would take awhile for the lift to take enough turns for it took get turned around and back in the same direction, but this was the only way Pan could think of ditching the other. Which is what he had to do, because while Pan wanted to learn more about demons, and especially Elementals, having them focusing on him was something he didn’t want, and Xane being unsure on how invasive the Council would be only cemented Pan’s resolve in cutting ties with the demon.

Leaning back in his chair Pan continued to stew in his own thoughts, completely losing track of time until he once again heard the ding overhead. He stood and withdrew his phone, noting that it was a little after 10 o’clock, before placing it once more in the back pocket of his pants. Once off of the lift and heading down the street, it only took Pan a couple minutes to get back to his apartment building. It loomed above him, several stories high and a dull, depressing gray that made the place look like some mental hospital instead of an apartment building.

Quickly climbing the several stories up to his floor, and slightly out of breath once he had done so, Pan fished out the small metal key from his front pocket and went to unlock the front door, only to find it already unlocked. Turning the knob and heading inside Pan was greeted with the site of his small living room, cluttered with empty bottles, cans and other various forms of trash, as well as his roommate, Kyle, sprawled out on the couch watching tv.

“Hey, where the hell have you been?” Kyle asked as Pan shut the door behind him and headed into the living room, looking around with a frown on his face.

Focused on not giving anything away to his strangely perceptive roommate, Pan said, “Around. What the hell happened here? Did the party get moved to our place at some point last night?”

“Ah, well, kinda. There was a noise complaint by one of the neighbors and everyone scattered, me and a few others ended up here. Sorry it’s such a mess, I’ve been nursing a headache since I got up and haven’t been able to pick up yet.” Kyle said this with a frown running a hand through his blonde and currently messy hair.

Pan stop looking around at the messed room and focused on Kyle, now noticing just how haggard the other looked. There were dark circles under his eyes, his face was unusually pale, and his eyes seemed much duller than what was normal. He was slouching slightly as well, making the couple inches Pan had on him even more pronounced.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll clean up later. Have you taken anything?” Pan asked as he walked towards the hallway that led to their two rooms and the bathroom.

“No, I’m not too sure what was all being passed around last night and some of that stuff stays with ya for a while, so…” Kyle trailed off and Pan nodded in understanding.

“Well I need to get some work done for school, so yell if you need anything.” Pan headed back to his room, and heard Kyle call out something after he shut the door. Poking his head back out he asked, “What was that?”

“What do you mean work? School only started Wednesday, so there shouldn’t be anything for you to do, or at least not that much.”

“Ah, I just have a few things I want to finish up, you know so I don’t have to worry about them. I’ll be pretty busy but, uh…” Pan trailed off, knowing how suspicious he sounded.

Kyle appeared at the end of the hallway, “You’re a terrible liar. I’d keep pestering you, but obviously you don’t want to talk about it yet and this headache is killing me. So, I’ll bug you tomorrow on what’s really going on.”

Pan chuckled lightly as Kyle turned back around and headed for the couch holding a hand to his head. “And I’ll try to come up with a better lie by then.”

He could just hear the muffled reply, “You better.” Signaling that Kyle was once more stretched out on couch, giving Pan leave to close his self up in his room.

Which is exactly what he did, before heading over to his bed and collapsing onto it. While Kyle was correct that Pan didn’t really have any type of schoolwork to do right now, he still reached over for his school bag and pulled out his Demonology book, and beginning to flip through it. Sighing when that didn’t hold his interest for too long, he set it aside and grabbed his laptop out of the bag next. He opened it up and started surfing through the internet, anything to keep his mind busy. Because unfortunately now that things had calmed down and Pan had more time to just sit and think, his thoughts kept going back to what transpired the past 12 hours, more specifically the events of last night as well as the kiss inside the lift.

After a certain point he was no longer even seeing the computer screen, just sitting on his bed zoned out in his own thoughts. Setting the computer to the side and falling backwards onto his bed, Pan let out another sigh. It was getting harder and harder to deny to him self that on some level he had enjoyed what happened. But why? Never before had he ever thought about another guy in that way, then all the sudden Xane shows up and now Pan can’t stop thinking about him. Groaning in frustration he hit the bed beside him before covering his eyes with his other arm.

Shifting his arm to look up at the ceiling he couldn’t help but sigh yet again. Not that anything could be done about it now. Pan had successfully ditched Xane at that terminal and hadn’t really gotten any information on the demon other his first name. He snorted to his self, here he had stayed the entire night at Xane’s house, and he had no idea where the guy lived. He hadn’t looked at any street signs when they were outside the home, nor had he seen what Xane’s house number had been either.

Whatever, Pan thought to himself, suddenly defiant again, It’s not like anything can be done about it now. I’ll just forget about what happened last night and everything will go back to normal. Last night was a fluke, I’m not attracted to guys, and what ever Xane was talking about with me being different from normal humans was wrong. I’m not gay and I’m just a normal, average, everyday guy.

…

Right?



_______________________________


1. Just in case it’s not entirely clear what these are, here’s a little bit better explanation. The entire counter top that Xane is working on has the potential to be a stove, but it only reacts to the certain things placed on it. So when he set the pan down the area underneath turned on. There’s also a switch on the underside of the pan’s handle, to adjust the level of heat or turn it off completely. Isn’t the future just nifty? ^_^

2. Ways (also known as D-Ways): Routes through out the H-District that demons are allowed to run and move the same as how they do in D-District. If not on one of these Ways, demons have to walk or find ways of transportation just like a human.

3. Sky-Lifts are the main mode of public transportation in this time for humans. Resembling ski lifts or those hanging basket rides at amusement parks, they run all over the human side of the city. Each Sky-Lift holds about a half dozen people, is completely enclosed with glass windows on all sides, and hangs underneath the wires, suspended about two stories off the ground. It keeps track of whose going where by issuing plastic cards with small microchips in them that store the information and then reused after each time.

Ah, I’m so glad that this chapter is finally done. It was a blast to write but for some reason it’s been taking a little longer than usual to get my thoughts in order to make what I’m trying to write make sense. I hope this chapter didn’t disappoint and sorry but I don’t have time to individual reviews tonight. I’ll try to get them up with the next chapter but I have an interview tomorrow morning and its getting late :(

So for right now thank you Distant Raen, hardleyf, lakuniko, Tellnoone_Noonetells, Saminada, and Morgeth for the awesome reviews!

And as always rates and reviews are welcome!